COMMISSIONERS                                                GIENERAL
HEADQUARTERS 
CLAYTON F. SMITH                                                  CUMMINGS
SQUARE 
   PC"AYT NT                                                       
RIVER FOREST. 
FRANK BOBRYTZKE       FOREST PRESERVE DISTRICT                        ILLINOIS

WILLIAM BUSSE                                                       TELEPHONES

H. WALLACE CALDWELL                                            COLUMBUS 8400-FOREST
4470 
CARL J. CARLSON              OF COOK COUNTY 
MRS. ELIZABETH A. CONKEY 
WILLIAM N. ERICKSON                                               RKAL ESTATE
AND 
FRED FISCHMAN                      ILLJIJNOIS                     LEGAL DEPARTMENTS

MAURICE F. KAVANAGH 
MARY McENERNEY                                                   547 COUNTY
BUILDING 
GEORGE A. MILLER                                                     CHICAGO.

MRS. LUCY PALERMO                     .. se*                         ILLINOIS

DANIEL RYAN                                                          TELEPHONE

JOHN E. TRAEGER                                                    FRANKLIN
3000 
                           CHARLES G. SAUERS. @ONURAL SUUP[RINTENDENT 
                                    March 15, 1930. 
 
 
 
 
 
             Dr. Aldo Leopold 
             University of Wisconsin 
             Madison, Wisconsin 
 
 
             Dear Dr. Leopold: 
 
                               I hope sometime to see you and tell you 
             of the progess of our program of education for park and 
             forest recreation men. The talk I had with you was worth 
             a great deal to me. Started me off on the right track in 
             my thinking. We are really getting a concrete program 
             evolved. 
 
                               By the way, I enjoyed your article in 
             American Forests anent the controversy over the proposed 
             Department of Conservation. One of the few pieces of 
             lucid thinking that I've seen on the subject. 
 
                               For some time Itve had a yen to reestablish

             prairie chicken in the Palos Hills section of our preserves.

             They must have been there many years auo. There are OOO 
             acres there in one big block split east and west by the Sag

             Valley. There are practically no pheasant and few quail. 
             Reason: No farms and no food. Native grasses and weeds 
             long ago destroyed by fires and by cultivation. There are 
             hills and long rolling meadows of 300 or 400 acres in extent,

             surrounded by woods, with numerous marshes large and small.

 
                               Would prairie chicken survive without a 
             feed crop, in your opinion. There is absolutely no hunting.

             Some time ago, in the Saturday Evening Post, I saw mention 
             of a dwarf milo maize that was developed for planting in the

             Dust Bowl. Why would'nt that make an ideal feed crop? Do 
             you know anything about it? 
 
                               The Dept. of Conservation wants to go off

             half-cocked and plant chicken right away. I am holding back.

             I am writing Dr. Ralph Yaetter also.