IRA N. GABRIELSON, WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE PAPERS

The documents in this collection were sent to the Conservation Library Center by Ira Gabrielson, President, and Clinton Raymond "Pink" Gutermuth, Vice-President of the Wildlife Management Institute in 1965 and 1977. They relate primarily to Gabrielson's work with the Institute and his service on various national and local boards and committees, and contains a small amount of material from the U.S. Biological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The materials from Gutermuth relate to the activities of the Wildlife Management Institute, such as conferences, the Echo Park Dam controversy, game farms, management of public lands, and the Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland. The Institute cooperated with the Department of the Interior to produce radio broadcasts on a wide range of game, wildlife and conservation issues. Scripts of these broadcasts are included in the collection.

The correspondence of Gabrielson dates from 1935 to 1974. Only one folder contains material dated prior to his work at the Wildlife Management Institute. A small amount of correspondence was filed by subject or person, and includes letters from Charles Lindberg concerning the World Wildlife Fund, and from Jay "Ding" Darling, Pulitzer Prize winner, cartoonists, chief of the U.S. Biological Survey (1934-35) and first president (1936) of the National Wildlife Federation.

Under Gabrielson's supervision, the Institute studied and reported on the management of game and wildlife for several states. Reports of these state surveys date from 1948 to 1959 and are included in this series. Gabrielson served on a large number of committees and advisory boards. These files include correspondence, meeting notices, minutes and agendas. They are organized by earliest date. A quantity of this material comes from the National Academy of Science, National Research Council, Committee on Pest Control and Wildlife Relationships and includes reports of the committee. Of particular interest is the Subcommittee on Research, whose report, Effects of Pesticides Upon Fish and Wildlife, was being drafted just as Rachael Carson's Silent Spring was serialized in the New Yorker in June 1962.

Gabrielson was also very active in local Virginia groups, including the Coordinating Committee on the Potomac River Valley (built around the opposition to the Army Corps of Engineers program of building dams on the Potomac Rive), and the Virginia Outdoor Recreation Study Committee which was to develop a plan that would qualify Virginia for Land and Water Conservation Fund monies.

A prolific writer, Gabrielson was responsible for many articles and books. The series contains reference material, including field notes, lists of birds in his own collection, book reviews, and text of articles and speeches, organized by title dating from 1935 to 1970. Drafts of A Plant Lover Looks at America, and untitled manuscripts on waterfowl, wildflowers, predator control, wildlife and fish and game administration are also included.

A few personal items of Gabrielson relate to family genealogy, memorabilia, and correspondence regarding his assignments and retirement are included. Correspondence from prominent government officials, primarily of a congratulatory nature, are brought together here.

Material in this series reflects the Institute's involvement with several major conservation issues, including: sponsorship of the North American Wildlife Conference, the effort to stop the construction of the Echo Park Dam, timber management, grazing, game farms, wildlife refuges, and monitoring the wildlife management policies of federal agencies.

This series includes articles and text of speeches given by Gabrielson and others, including Howard Zahniser (U.S. Biological Survey), Stanley Young (U.S. Biological Survey) and Henry A. Wallace (Secretary of Agriculture). Some of the titles include: Conservation and Control of Wild Life; Use of the Forests for Game Production; Our Federal Predator Control Work; Recent Observations on Game Farm Losses; Here Come the Elk; The Importance of Lead Poisoning in Waterfowl. An index includes date, author and title.

Radio scripts, some done in conjunction with the Wildlife Management Institute, cover topics such as hunting, game management, predator control, waterfowl, endangered species and energy demands as the nation faced the prospect of entering World War II. Most were broadcast as part of the National Farm and Home Hour, a program aired over the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and NBC as a public service program for farmers and homemakers.

The majority of this series consists of game survey reports written by Aldo Leopold from 1928 to 1930 for the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute. Also included are reprints of articles and book reviews by Leopold from the late 1920s to 1948; copies of correspondence between Leopold and William Vogt, of the Pan American Union. A copy of the Wildlife Research News Letter dated May 3, 1948 contains a brief biography of Leopold and a fifteen-page bibliography of his works.

The first scrapbook in this series contains newspaper clippings of the activities of the American Wildlife Institute. The second documents the North American Wild Life Conference held in Washington D.C. in February 1936.

The audio cassettes are from the Public Land Law Review Commission meeting in November of 1970.

Photographs in the collection were taken at various meetings, award ceremonies and conferences. They also include photographs of: plants and animals; of bird eggs and nests, marked as the "B.H. Warren Collection"; mounted photographs identified as "Photographs to Accompany American Wild Flowers by Ira Noel Gabrielson" (176 pages).