DEPARTMENT OF                                                     BOARD
OF NATURAL RESOURCES 
REGISTRATION AND EDUCATION                                              
  AND CONSERVATION 
FRANK G. THOMPSON. DIRECTOR                                             FRANK
G. THOMPSON. CHAIRMAN 
       SPRINGFIELD                                                     BIOLOGY
    CARL G. HARTMAN 
                                                                       FORESTRY
     EZRA J. KRAUS 
                                                                       GEOLOGY
    NORMAN L. BOWEN 
                                                                       ENGINEERING
LOUIS R. HOWSON 
                                                                       CHEMISTRY
 . - ROGER ADAMS 
                                        STATE OF ILLINOIS              UNIVERSITY
OF ILLINOIS- 
                                     DWIGHT H. GREEN. GOVERNOR          
 PRESIDENT. GEORGE D. STODDARD 
                     STATE NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY DIVISION 
                                    LEO R. TEHON, ACTING CHIEF 
                                           URBANA 
                                                              November 15,
1946 
 
 
 
 
           Prof. Aldo Leopold 
           Department of Wildlife Management 
           The University of Wisconsin 
           College of Agriculture . 
           424 University Farm Place 
           Madison, Wisconsin 
 
 
           Dear Prof. Leopold: 
 
                      I am most heartily in sympathy with the interest you
ex- 
            pressed in your letter of November 8 regarding the Green River
Area 
            and its present and future management. 
 
                      When the problem of the area was presented to me this
summer 
            I found it already pretty much a case of an accomplished deed.
It ap- 
            peared that this area, after having been purchased, had for various

            reasons been subjected to circumstances not conducive to the
conserva- 
            tion of wildlife; for example, repeated accidental or intentionAburning

            over. Also, at some time, perhaps more than two years ago, pheasants

            had been released on or near the area and had established themselves

            there more or less successfully. Whatever may have been the intention

            with regard to the area at the time that its purchase was suggested,

            it apparently remained a fact that nothing constructive had been
done 
            and that,in genera). circumstances persisting through several
years had 
            tended toward destructiveness. 
 
                      Last summer Mr. Hawkins, Dr. Yeatter, Mr. Wandell,
and I had 
            a prolonged conference with one member of the State Department
of Con- 
            servation. Several viewpoints were presented very strongly at
that 
            conference and the net result of the conference was that, so
far as the 
            Natural History Survey was concerned, we were assured of and
would get 
            the best protection for prairie chickens that we could devise
consider- 
            ing the uses to which the Department of Conservation desired
to put a 
            portion of the area. 
 
 
                                           Sincerely yours, 
 
 
 
 
 
                                           Acting Chief 
 
 
LRT/GCJ