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The Missouri river flows on today as it did 100 years ago—
the same stream along which John James Audubon, the great naturalist,
studied the lives of the huge flocks of inland water, birds of a century gone by.
The great springs of the State gush forth, unchanged.
Pure sparkling water, its gallons measured by hundreds of millions,
leaps each day from the depths of the earth in an unending miracle.
When Daniel Boone crossed the borders of Kentucky to the new land called Missouri,
he came to a land of abundance.
He and those who followed him found a perfect natural balance between the earth and its inhabitants.
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The pioneer saw nature as his enemy and the forest as an evil thing.
He cleared land on which to raise his crops, and the forest stood back.
But man was still afraid, and he fought the trees.
He cleared his land too well, forgetting that roots helped to hold that land.
He cut the tall trees as fast as his tools would allow.
And he chopped out the new growth.
Wildlife was driven from its natural home.
Man was destroying that home.
The sheltering trees were vanishing and food-giving shrubs were disappearing.
Man could not realize what he was doing.
He gave no thought to a time when he might be in need of the trees.
He went on with his ruthless slaughter.
He over-cut the forest and over-cultivated his soil.
He thought that nature's resources were infinite and could not envision a future when they might become exhausted.
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The soil, the water and the air make up our world—all that we have to live by.
Wildlife must get its living from the soil, even as you and I.
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What trees were left still held the soil together as best they could.
But the struggle for their own existence was a hard one.
And man had never considered their needs.
Trees, too, must live on the soil, and the soil was going.
The earth was generous but man took too much from it.
The land grew poor.
Weather had always been the friend of the soil, and rains had given life.
Now with protecting cover gone, weather became an enemy.
Even small storms brought devastation.
Rains beat the soil and tore deeply into it.
Rich topsoil fled downhill, always downhill, and was carried away by the rivers.
The first small furrows grew into deep, ragged gullies—
gullies in which nothing could grow, even if they could have been cultivated.
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There was no home for wildlife on this barren soil.
Food was gone and nesting places were gone.
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But man kept on planting the crops that grew worse every year.
Planting up to the very edges of the drying streams.
Man saw his loss, though not yet the reason for it.
He tried to rebuild the ruin.
Game was released without considering its needs.
Fish were dumped in waters poorly suited to maintain them.
Growing dissatisfaction was the natural result of failure, and the people felt that time had come for action.
With the awakening came an amendment to the Constitution of Missouri,
an amendment establishing a Conservation Commission to study the problem and to work with the people.
The Commission took the problem of regulation straight to the people of the State.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Conservation Commission has asked you to come here
to help us in the reasonable regulation of the bird, fish, game,
forestry, wildflower and wildlife resources of this State.
What regulations is the Commission proposing?
The Conservation Commission is not at this time proposing anything or even suggesting anything.
We want your candid and unbiased opinions.
Please feel free to give them. Do not pull your punches.
If we're going to have any bass fishing in Missouri,
we're going to have to shorten the seasons and increase the size of them.
And that goes for the other seasons too.
Hold on a minute.
I agree about increasing the size limit.
But I like to fish for crappie and perch,
and I don't see why I should be penalized just because bass spawn later.
We have got to protect the rabbit.
There is too many being shipped out of the State.
I don't agree. Up my way, rabbits are a nuisance.
It's the coon that needs protection.
Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for cooperating with us in this task.
What you have said has been recorded and will be studied by the Commission
to the end that we may make regulations
to accomplish the objectives in which we are all interested.
Namely the saving from one season until the next
a sufficient breeding stock to provide us in the future with ample wildlife.
Using the information gained from scores of meetings,
the Commission wrote the new Wildlife and Forestry Code—
a code based on the principle of taking only surplus and building up breeding stock.
Today all agencies serving the interest of the farmer have definite working arrangements with the Conservation Commission.
Thousands of farmers owning hundreds of thousands of acres have established land management areas.
Missouri's youth is playing an important part in restoring a suitable environment for wildlife.
Youth group projects are effective and improve the land itself.
The value of their work is great and is acknowledged by awards of badges and certificates.
Through the Edward K. Love foundation, young people contributing to conservation may win scholarships to the State University.
More than a million-and-a-half trees furnished by the Commission are planted each year,
distributed through all sections of Missouri.
Much of this planting is done by 4-H Club, Future Farmers of America
and the other youth groups who work so well with the Conservation Commission.
The Commission is working with the State University and with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
in searching out the scientific basis for wildlife restoration.
Technicians spend long hours in their laboratories
and their specimens teach them much of the essential knowledge of the needs of wildlife in the State.
But their work is not in the laboratories alone.
Staff members and students go out from the laboratories, out into all parts of the State.
And they carry on the research in the homes of the animals themselves.
In studying the food and cover needs of fish, they learn directly from the soil,
soil taken from the bottoms of the lakes and streams.
The study of the raccoon, one of the most valuable of Missouri's native game animals,
is one more in the many faces of this new and wise program of working with real facts.
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More than two million acres of forestland in the State are now under cooperative fire protection.
Man has learned to value his forests.
He fights for them instead of against them.
From tall towers scattered through the forests of the State, the foresters keep unending watch for damage.
Immediate spotting of fires means time saved and trees saved.
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The official foresters do not work alone.
The landowners work with them both in reporting fire and fighting it.
Strained units of the CCC are ready to start with the first sound of the fire bell.
Almost 600 wildfires were conquered last year through the efforts of the foresters
and those working with them.
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Artificial propagation is being used today to build up breeding stocks.
But its use today is wise, and release is no longer unthinking.
To hasten fish restoration,
State hatcheries are producing four million fish annually in species suited to the waters of Missouri.
Fish found in waters that are drying are rescued
and transferred to streams that can support them.
More than a million fish are saved each year by intelligent cooperative work.
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Every step in the release of game and fish is planned, efficient and tested.
Fish are dumped no longer.
From tank trucks in which temperatures are controlled,
they're allowed to swim directly into suitable waters that will supply their needs.
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When the trees are saved, the soil is saved.
When the soil is saved, the streams are saved.
And when the streams are saved, fishing gets better.
Natural balance is coming back to Missouri.
The farmer and the Commission have learned together that good conservation is simply good farming.
Throughout the State, Land Management areas improve the farms and give food, water and cover to the wildlife.
Working with the Commission, farmers find that they are gaining both recreation and profit.
Hello there, sonny. It looks like you're having pretty good luck.
Ought to be some more nice ones in there just like that too, aren't they?
Sure, plenty of them, larger than this.
We’ve been catching some nice fish in there since we did that planning,
and that pond just about saved this field out here.
Well that's fine.
Say Jim, our field service agent is having a meeting over here at the schoolhouse tonight.
Why don't you come over and tell the folks what you've done?
I might come over and tell them about that field out there.
We paid $10 an acre for it about seven years ago, and last year cleared about $30 an acre for it in wheat.
You did?
And there is a fisherman coming in now, been down on my creek.
Yeah, he's got some nice fish, too.
Thanks very much for letting me fish over there.
It certainly is a good stream.
They’re dandies, aren't they? They’re dandies. You bet.
Say, Jim has got some mighty fine quail on his place, too.
Yes. I guess it all ties in together.
What’s good for the land is good for the wildlife that's on the land.
You’re right, Jim.
I am beginning to understand what the Conservation Commission is really trying to do.
They have made me understand that the farmer is actually the sportsman's friend.
The Conservation Commission is a friend to both the farmer and the sportsman.
Well fellows it's just a matter of cooperation.
The farmer, and the public and the Commission can get a lot done when they all work together.
I guess you're right.