IF one may judge from impressions of casual talk, there is a good deal of confusion in the public mind on the subjects usually grouped under such terms as ‘nature conservation’ and the like. Many people who have not given much thought to the subject seem to have little more than a vague desire that as much as possible of England’s green and pleasant land should be saved from the uglier features of industrial development. There are also many to whom the words ‘national parks’ suggest only memories of Hampstead Heath on a Bank Holiday, and ‘nature reserves’ mean only barbed wire and notices threatening the prosecution of trespassers. It may be worth while, therefore, to recapitulate some elementary considerations which, although they have long been familiar to scientific men interested in such matters, are not yet generally appreciated. For this purpose a convenient starting point is given by the recently published report of the Nature Reserves Investigation Committee* which presents, within the compass of a pamphlet of 25 pages, an admirably balanced statement of the purposes of nature conservation and of the methods by which these purposes may be attained.

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.NATURE RESERVES. 151 (3843),707-709.

"NATURE RESERVES" 151

"NATURE RESERVES"