OCR Text |
Show Our Problems in Conservation Stepped up research, regulatory laws and public education all are needed to cope with conservation problems caused by the increasing use of chemical pesticides, according to the National Audubon Society. In a newsletter directed to officers of its 330 local branches and affiliates in the United States, the Society said these "three courses of action are necessary": "1. Research to show what new chemicals will and will not do, in the long run as well as in the short run, before they are placed on the market or fogged onto the land in government spraying programs. Research also to discover alternate, and safe biological and cultural controls for economic pests. "2. New laws to regulate the distributon and sale of chemical chemi-cal pesticides, to regulate their use by government agencies, and to license persons engaged in contract spraying. "3. Education efforts to alert the public to the dangers involved in the unwise application of ..poisons that have not been fully studied, and in the excessive or careless use of tested poisons." Pointing to a ten-fold volume increase in the use of chemical controls since 1940, the. Society said the pesticides industry "has achieved a momentum that will be difficult to deviate into patterns pat-terns of use that are based on1 sound research and ecological understanding "Nevertheless, some solid facts are emerging from present research into wildlife relationships, and this is a real gain." The conservation organization referred to "numerous wildlife wild-life losses" that have been "documented" by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It also quoted a report by the U. S. Public Health Service on water pollution caused by pesticides, noting that fish kills occurred in fifteen streams in the Tennessee River Valley after the application of an insecticide to cotton fields in eight Alabama counties. The National Society urged local Audubon groups to stimulate stimu-late discussion in public forums and other methods to create "an informed public that will prevent pesticide blunders in the local community." |