COOPERATIVE QUAIL STUDY ASSOCIATION

SHERWOOD PLANTATION
THOMASVILLE, GEORGIA
April 1, 1941
Professor Aldo Leopold,
424 University Farm Place,
Madison, Wisconsin
Dear Aldo:
The various communications have come in from you
and have been neglected to my two weeks' trip to Rockford, from
which I have just returned. As you probably know, my Mother pas-
sed away on the 23rd of March, but I had a week with her before
her passing. We will miss her tremendously but it was for the best,
under the circumstances.
Regarding your letter of March 17th concerning Fran-
cis Harper. TI agree with Komarek's comments on Harper 1000. He is
a crackerjack of an ornithologist and mammalogist and knows a great
deal about reptiles, amphibians and vegetations, and is doing a
splendid job in digging out historical work on Bartram and his tra-
vels over the Southeast, but, as Komarek said, he has no use at all
for such work as we are conducting here and is entirely out of sym-
pathy with all sorts of wildlife management work. While I can
readily see his viewpoint in regard to the Okefinokee (I guess you
and I both would like to have seen this Swamp and many similar spots
remain in their virgin condition), it seems to me his attitude to-
wards the lumbering in this Swamp and the developments carried on
by the Biological Survey since is entirely impractical. So far as
I have been able to determine--though I have not been over there
for a year or two--the Fish and Wildlife Service (I still think of
it as the Biological Survey and always will) is doing a splendid
job in the Swamp and my sympathy is entirely with them. Harper ap-
parently has access to the back door of the White House at present
and is taking advantage of the situation to harass the Fish and
Wildlife Service in every possible way. Undoubtedly, the Service
has made mistakes in the Okefinokee, as they have all along the line
in their southeastern development work, but they are doing the best
they can and learning fast and are modifying their management prac-
tices as soon as they see they should.
Relative to your letter concerning Finarsen's bulle-
tin. I have not yet seen this as no copy has come in, so cannot
comment very intelligently on his recommendation of pole trapping.
However, I am dead against any general recommendations to the pub-
lic for the use of pole traps and have long hoped they would be
completely outlawed in this country as they have been in England.
My stand on the use of pole traps is well indicated in our Seventh
Annual Report, where three paragraphs on pages ten and eleven cover
the matter well. After T have had an opportunity to read the bulle-