Conservation can take many forms, but the simplest definition of the practice is preserving the land, air, water and wildlife in the outdoors for future generations.
There are more groups and organizations — locally, statewide and nationally — with conservation on their agendas than even a computer can pinpoint. But under that broad umbrella topic, they come at conservation from a wide variety of viewpoints.
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What always should be remembered — whether it is hunters, habitat creators or clear water advocates — is that everyone is on the same side, that all have a common goal.
The point of having a common goal often is recognized, but representatives of conservation organizations manning booths at the recent opening of the Bass Pro Shops outdoor store in Bolingbrook want to see the schism between traditional outdoorsmen and traditional conservationists healed.
“I think it’s something still to be worked on,” said Matt Bradshaw, regional wildlife biologist for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. “Hunters and land owners tend to be the best conservationists.”
Traditional conservationists who look with suspicion at hunters, and maybe even fishermen, are wrong to do so. Hunters want healthy woods and fishermen want healthy waters, just as they do.
Nowhere in Illinois is the outdoors more endangered than the Chicago area. Urban sprawl sometimes seems as if it runs halfway to Springfield. Trees and open spaces are being swallowed up by shopping malls, parking lots and condominiums at a steady rate.
Pheasants Forever buys available land it can afford and restores it, usually in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Just recently, Bradshaw said, Pheasants Forever closed on the purchase of 500 acres of land in McLean County. Right now the land is dirt, corn and soybeans. Within a year, Bradshaw said, it is hoped to provide pheasant cover and be used for hunting.
Quail Unlimited is involved in similar work.
“We’re trying to revive the countryside like it was 25 to 40 years ago,” said Michael Kapp, the organization’s regional director for the Great Lakes area.
There are limits on turning back the clock, but Quail Unlimited plants prairie grass and shrubs and develops food plots for the birds wherever it can.
Quail in Illinois have been on a steady decline since 1980, dropping 80 percent or more, Kapp said, though the population has leveled off recently. About 25 years ago, Kapp said, there were 30 to 35 million quail in the state. Now there are 2 to 5 million, he estimated.
“That fast,” he said of the abrupt decline. “It’s totally because of mega-farms and urban sprawl.”
The upcoming 50th anniversary Des Plaines River Canoe Marathon showcases conservation thinking in a different way. The theory behind the founding of the event, race chairman Jack Snarr said, was “as a means of getting people out on the river, to attract people to appreciate it.”
There may be 700 racers next Sunday for this year’s challenge, but Snarr guessed 25 percent of them are hard-core racers focused more on finish times than the scenery. The rest, he said, will be glad just to be out there and will take time to gaze at the riverbank and wildlife.
“There are a lot of people in this race for fun,” he said.
Greg Pytlewski, the Northern Illinois Zone Chairman for Ducks Unlimited, glanced at the booths around him.
“We’re all here together,” he said, recognizing the common ground between interest groups.
The number of Americans aware of conservation efforts, and participating in them, compared to a few decades ago is significant, Pytlewski said, but more consciousness-raising is needed.
“[People] are a little more aware, but they could be more aware,” he said.
Bob Ruff, IDNR head of public events programs, said public awareness has been on a decades-long upswing. Volunteers are numerous at state parks, he said, and “constituency groups” are involved heavily in outdoor improvement projects of every type. He cited the cleanup of the Illinois River.
“Around Ottawa, if you were going to fish in there you were going to catch a garbage can,” Ruff said. “Now you might catch a big walleye.”
In Ruff’s mind, consciousness has been raised, but the job of conservation never ends.
“We are eons ahead of where we were,” Ruff said. “We realize we’re running out of space and we have to save it. You feel it around [Chicago]. We need to take care of our resources.”
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“We” means all of us, from hunters and fishermen and canoe paddlers, to river protectors and land preservationists.
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