Summer camps for teachers are maintained in each state through cooperative effort of the state departments of conservation and of public instruction, and state colleges or universities. The principal teacher-education camps are located at Leesville Lake, Ohio; Versailles State Park, Indiana; Fox Lake and Springfield, Illinois; and Springbrook State Park, Iowa. These camps all offer college credit.

A fertile field for conservation education is found in camps for boys and girls. According to the American Camping Association, there are in the neighborhood of 700 such camp properties in our 4 states, with well over a third of them in Ohio. Approximately 900 separate groups attend these camps. Conservation concepts can be introduced into the conventional camp offerings by any director who has a genuine desire to teach appreciation of natural resources in his program.

One important phase of conservation education involves learning how to behave in the woods. It concerns a fundamental attitude, the development of which can be started in the primary grades. Common acts of carelessness include polluting water; defiling toilets and campsites; defacing trees, buildings, fireplaces, and tables; scattering garbage and debris at picnicgrounds; throwing rubbish out of cars; disregarding fire-prevention rules. Policing and maintenance not only add to the taxpayers' bill, but require diversion of funds for repair and cleanup that are needed for more constructive purposes. "Litterbugs" have been estimated to cost federal, state, and county governments nationwide a total of over $30 million a year in cleaning up our forests, parks, highways, and beaches.

Another phase of forest living is the practice of safety. Hazards are plentiful in the woods and around water, and the chances that an accident will prove serious are multiplied because medical or surgical help is usually some distance away. Safe methods in camp, on the trail, in canoes, and in handling firearms can be learned through demonstration and practice.

Outdoor good manners can be learned in school, at camps, and on group or family outings. Youngsters can then teach their parents and their friends. Everyone can participate in the first lessons in conservation.

Recreation Management

In an area dedicated to recreation as the primary use, considerable skill and technical knowledge are needed for effective management. Decisions must be made based upon accumulation and analysis of facts. A map showing types of cover and land uses is one of the first requirements. After a survey and inventory of the management area, the answers to such questions as these can be incorporated into the plan: What purposes is the area expected to serve? Will timber be cut, and if so, how much, where, and with what protection of recreation and scenic values? May roads be constructed, and if so, what type, and where? What structures, such as resorts, summer homes, docks, auto courts, and public camps, will be allowed, and what standards of construction will be set up? What fence construction, if any, is necessary? What areas will be developed and which shall remain undisturbed?

Timber cutting, in areas where recreation use is dominant, should usually be restricted to improvement cutting for aesthetic purposes, with the timber cut considered only as a by-product. Normally, in heavily-used recreation areas and in roadside and waterfront zones, the only cutting permitted should be that which benefits recreation. However, within areas where recreation occupies an

equal or subordinate interest with other major functions and uses, timber cutting can be carried on with limited conflict, provided it is judiciously planned.

Grazing should be prohibited in woodlands and in areas used by recreationists. Pastures within recreation areas should be well fenced.

Wildlife habitat can be preserved in recreation areas with few, if any, special provisions. Certain species of wildlife actually develop a special tolerance to human beings-for example, opossum, deer, squirrel, quail, racoon, and many birds and waterfowl.

Well-planned and carefully-administered recreation use has no adverse effects upon water yield or streamflow. However, if use is concentrated too much, pollution may occur, and compaction of soil and depletion of vegetation may result in erosion.

Aesthetic and scenic values can be protected if there are adequate laws and ordinances, and public support of them. The rural landscape can be preserved through zoning, a system of use based upon land classification. The worth of this method has been well demonstrated in Wisconsin. When zoning is applied, individual interest becomes subordinate to the welfare of society. The "greatest good of the greatest number in the long run" as a principle of conservation seldom reaches a higher form of expression.

The pines were planted as a roadside improvement. The tops have been cut off so that the advertising signs will be visible. The warning "Careful With Fire" provides an ironic touch.

The principal attraction of the forest is its "differentness" from urban environment. Past experiences point up the wisdom of making every effort now to preserve attractive segments of the outdoors and vestiges of wild land for the enjoyment of all and to insure that they will not be despoiled and over-tamed. Salvage later is always a hard road, an expensive one, and never entirely adequate.

Conservation owes much to alert citizens whose primary interest in recreation led them to support a broader program. Recreation-minded users of the forest are enthusiastic and wield considerable influence. They have the responsibility, therefore, of keeping well informed on conservation problems and of weighing the contributions forests make in raw materials for industry. On the other hand, those concerned with economic values must keep in mind the inner satisfactions, improved health, and relief from mental and nervous tensions provided by forests, and see to it that aesthetic factors are preserved. Forests and woodlands serve man in many ways and no yardstick has been devised that will determine the most important benefit.

7

PROTECTING WOODLANDS

The principal causes of damage to woodlands are grazing, fire, destructive cutting, insects, diseases, and storms.

Grazing

In the coniferous forests of the West, with their many grassy openings, grazing causes only occasional and minor damage to trees. In our central region, however, woodlands are probably damaged more from grazing than from any other cause, although fire is more important in the southern portion. The widespread practice of allowing livestock to graze the woods along with open pasture can be attributed to several factors: woodlands are composed almost entirely of hardwood species, the young growth of which is relished by livestock; there is a large livestock population on farms, with corresponding pressure upon pasture; the timber value of woodlands is underrated while their forage value is overrated; woods furnish shade in hot weather.

In Iowa about 84 percent of all woodland in the state is pastured, according to farm census figures; in Illinois about 63 percent; in Indiana 60 percent; and in Ohio 38 percent. Pasturing is most severe in the zone of small scattered woodlots. From the figures cited, one might well conclude that grazing is at work reducing the total timber-growing potential of the woodlands of the region by 2/5 to 5 of the present capacity. Any gain in new shoots that escape death from overbrowsing is being offset by damage to roots and humus, and by reduction in growth and in quality of the stand.

If 38 percent to 84 percent of the woodland in these states were consumed by fire in one catastrophic year, the impact upon the public would be swift and certain. The results of grazing are as final, yet because the process extends over a period of years it escapes attention.

Studies showing the effect of grazing on woodlands prove that "Cows make poor foresters and woodlands make poor pastures." For example, in one experiment, beef cattle grazing only woodland