But what happe ns in nature is not allowe d to happe n in the mode rn, che mical-drenche d world,
where s p raying des tro ys not only the ins ects but their principal enemy, the birds. When later
there is a resurgence of the insect population, as almos t always happens , the birds are not
there to keep their numbe rs in check. As the Curator of Birds at the Milwaukee Public Mus eum,
Owen J. Gromme, wrote to the Milwaukee Journal: ‘The greatest enemy of insect life is other
predatory ins ects, birds, and some small mammals, but DDT kills indiscriminately, including
nature’s own s afeguards or policemen... In the name of progress are we to become victims of
our own diabolical means of insect control to provide temporary comf ort, only to los e out to
destroying insects later on? By what means will we control new pests, which will attack
remaining tree s pecies after the elms are gone, whe n nature’s s afeguards (the birds ) have been
wiped out by pois on?’
Mr. Gromme reported that calls and letters about dead and dying birds had been increas ing
s teadily during the years since spraying began in Wisconsin. Questioning always revealed that
s praying or fogging had been done in the area where the bi rds were dying.
Mr. G romme’s experience has been s hared by ornithologists and conservationists at most of
the research centers of the Midwes t s uch as the Cranbrook Ins titute in Michigan, the Illinois
Natural History Survey, and the University of Wisconsin. A glance at the Letters-fro m-Readers
column of news pape rs almos t anywhere that s praying is being done makes clear the fact that
citizens are not only becoming arous ed and indignant but that often they s how a keener
unde rs tanding of the dangers and incons is tencies of s praying than do the officials who orde r it
done. ‘I am dreading the days to come s oon now when many beautiful birds will be dying in our
back yard,’ wrote a Milwaukee woman. ‘This is a pitiful, heartbreaking experience... It is,
moreove r, frus trati ng and exas perating, for it evidently does not s erve the purpos e this
slaughter was intended to serve... Taking a long look, can you save trees without also saving
birds? Do the y not, in the economy of nature, s ave each other? Is n’t it pos s ible to help the
balance of nature without des troying it?’ The idea that the el ms , majes tic s hade trees though
they are, are not ‘s acred cows ’ and do not jus tify an ‘open end’ campaign of des tructi on agains t
all other forms of life is expressed in other letters. ‘I have always loved our elm trees which
seemed like trademarks on our lands cape,’ wrote anothe r Wis cons in woman. ‘But there are
many kinds of trees ...We mus t s ave our birds , too. Can anyone i magine anything s o cheerles s
and dreary as a s pringtime without a robin’s s ong?’ To the public the choice may easily appear
to be one of s tark black-or-white simplicity: Shall we have birds or shall we have elms? But it is
not as s imple as that, and by one of the i ronies that abound throughout the field of che mical
control we may very well end by having neither if we continue on our present, well-traveled
road. Spraying is killing the birds but it is not saving the elms. The illusion that salvation of the
elms lies at the end of a spray nozzle is a dangerous will-o’- the-wisp that is leading one
community after another into a moras s of heavy expenditures , without producing las ting
res ults. Greenwich, Connecticut s prayed regularly for ten years. Then a drought year brought
conditions especially favorable to the beetle and the mortality of elms went up 1000 per cent.
In Urbana, Illinois, where the University of Illinois is located, Dutch elm disease first appeared in
- Spraying was undertaken in 1953. By 1959, in spite of six years ’ s praying, the unive rs ity
campus had lost 86 per cent of its elms, half of them victims of Dutch elm disease. In Toledo,
Ohio, a s imilar experience caus ed the Supe rinte nde nt of Fores try, J os eph A. Sweeney, to take a
realistic look at the res ults of s praying. Spraying was begun there in 1953 and continued