Resources and Environment

In the second year of an effort to help preserve the quality of man's physical and biological environment, the Foundation made grants to explore means of preserving open space in metropolitan areas, to develop conservation leadership, and to purchase natural areas of scientific interest.

The Nature Conservancy, a private organization, received a $550,000 grant to help it expand and reorganize; the Conservancy makes grants and loans to help both private and public agencies preserve natural lands. To strengthen public information and education on conservation in New England and help develop strong local conservation societies, the Massachusetts Audubon Society was granted $375,000. In New York, funds were granted to the Open Space Action Committee, which has persuaded many owners to keep as much open space as possible in the metropolitan area underdeveloped.

To test new methods of controlling land use, a $240,000 grant was made for the planning of an experiment in the scenic 21,000-acre basin of the east branch of Brandywine Creek, near Philadelphia. In the experiment, easements and other land rights would be purchased to regulate development of the watershed compatibly with the need for pure water supplies and the open character of the region. The University of Pennsylvania and the United States Geological Survey are working with the Chester County Water Resources Authority to develop the plan.

For fellowships in land-use law, the University of Wisconsin received $120,000. Recipients will be lawyers who will receive special training to fit them for high positions in resource management.

Grants totaling $625,000 were made to the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University for biological field stations to study the relations of plants and animals to their environment. The Smithsonian is purchasing an area of woodland and marsh on the Chesapeake Bay and acquiring rights to an additional area to be kept in its natural state. A field biology center will be set up on the site to serve the Washington-Baltimore area, including the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, and the Smithsonian will develop its own ecological research and training program. Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology was assisted in buying a tract of land in Concord, Massachusetts, for a field research station.

To help the National Audubon Society preserve Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, part of the Big Cypress Swamp that once covered southwestern Florida, a $232,000 grant was made. The sanctuary, which contains more than 2,000 acres of cypress trees, some more than 700 years old, is now threatened by real-estate development that is draining adjacent land for house lots. The grant will enable the society to purchase enough additional acreage to maintain the present water level in the sanctuary.

Engineering Curricula and Teaching

Through an $880,000 expansion of a Foundation program initiated three years ago, about 150 additional young engineering professors will gain industrial experience at a high level of decision-making; fifty faculty members have participated so far. By serving a year or so with a company, engineering teachers match their scientific knowledge and research talent with a better grasp of such considerations of engineering practice as cost, design, competition, and marketability.

Two grants were made in continued support for the development of engineering-design education, which stresses technical, scientific, and social knowledge relating to the cost and feasibility requirements of the civilian economy. The University of Illinois, which received $120,000, will bring engineers from industry to present case studies of design problems in student seminars, and faculty members will visit industry to gather case material. Washington University received assistance for a conference to demonstrate to other institutions a university-industry