Col. A. M. Drayton
Waconsin State JourSal
Madison, Wisconsin
Bear Colonel Iraytons
I wonder if you realiso that the conversion of the
University fay marsh into a boat harbor, which you advocate in
your Priday issue. has Important bearings on conservation?
One of the fundamental presues of conservation is that
marshes are an iaportant part of the organism we call land, and
as such are not to be lightly #amtated" from the landseape.
Land, likt aq other organism, consists of interdependent parts.
It is a fallcy to think we can amputate one part and retain normal
health in the land as a whole.
If you doubt this, I suggest you listen in on the Nydro-
biological Sympostan being held on the easpas next week. It is
Ironical that the university faculty should be telling the world
about the indispensability of marshes during the very week that the
city of Madison is arranging the dentse of the University lay marsh.
I admit at once that the University marsh is a small place,
and that its demolition will have no measurable physioal effect on
the land-health of the county or the region. But the sum total or
umulnative effect of these small demolitions is another matter. One
of the effets has been the rwin of five counties in central Wisconsin.
University Bay io a moral, rather than a physical, Issue.
If the universtty expects Wisconsin farmers to heed its advice to be
cantious about demolshYing marshes, it had better watch what example
it sets on Its own campas.
Am esthetic issue to also involved. The university marsh,
which you call "one of the few uninviting spots on Lake Mendota,*
is the sole bit of natural landscape remaning on the camus. If, in
the eye of Wisconsin ctisens, *dockage and sightly buildings" are
more inviting than a natural marsh, then we had better spend cur sany,
if we have any, on a new department of esthetic education, rather than
on new dockage for boats.
I sa heartily in sympathy with tb e proposal to encourage
boating on the lake. If University Bay is the only possible place

Axnant 31, 1940