Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and PreservationHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Game-laws -- United States; Wildlife conservation -- United States
When the story of the national government's part in wild-life protection
is finally written, it will be found that while he was president,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT made a record in that field that is indeed enough to
make a reign illustrious. He aided every wild-life cause that lay within
the bounds of possibility, and he gave the vanishing birds and mammals
the benefit of every doubt. He helped to establish three national bison
herds, four national game preserves, fifty-three federal bird refuges,
and to enact the Alaska game laws of 1902 and 1907.
It was in 1904 that the national government elected to accept its share
of the white man's burden and enter actively into the practical business
of wild life protection. This special work, originally undertaken and
down to the present vigorously carried on by Dr. Theodore S. Palmer, has
considerably changed the working policy of the Biological Survey of the
Department of Agriculture, and greatly influenced game protection
throughout the states. The game protection work of that bureau is alone
worth to the people of this country at least twenty times more per annum
than the entire annual cost of the Bureau. Next to the splendid services
of Dr. Palmer, all over the United States, one great value of the Bureau
is found in the fact-and-figure ammunition that it prepares and
distributes for general use in assaults on the citadels of Ignorance and
Greed. The publications of the Bureau are of great practical value to
the people of the United States.
[Illustration: NOTABLE PROTECTORS OF WILD LIFE (1)
MADISON GRANT
Secretary and Chairman Executive Committee, New York Zoological Society
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
President, New York Zoological Society
JOHN F. LACEY
Ex-Member of Congress; Author of the "Lacey Bird Law"
WILLIAM DUTCHER
Founder and President, National Association of Audubon Societies]
Dr. Palmer is a man of incalculable value to the cause of protection.
No call for advice is too small to receive his immediate attention, no
fight is too hot and no danger-point too remote to keep him from the
fray. Wherever the Army of Destruction is making a particularly
dangerous fight to repeal good laws and turn back the wheels of
progress, there will he be found. As the warfare grows more intense,
Congress may find it necessary to enlarge the fighting force of the
Biological Survey.
The work that has been done by the Bureau in determining the economic
value or lack of value of our most important species of insectivorous
birds, has been worth millions to the agricultural interests of the
United States. Through it we know where we stand. The reasons why we
need to strive for protection can be expressed in figures and
percentages; and it seems to me that they leave the American people no
option but to _protect_!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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