Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved (Part

1: 1940s-1960s)

Iwas appointed to the Resolutions Committee in 2017 and became Chair of the committee after the 2022 Convention. We talk and report about the importance of resolutions, timelines and processes, the role of the Resource Advisory Committees; we publish the resolutions on the website and send them to intended recipients. I thought it would be interesting to look at CFM’s resolution history.

The Restoration and Conservation Federation was formed on September 10, 1935, and its first order of business was the petition drive to establish the nonpolitical conservation commission. That task was successfully completed with the passing of Amendment No. 4 on November 3, 1936, and the organization incorporated as the Conservation Federation of Missouri on March 21, 1938.

The process of developing resolutions must have begun at the first annual Convention in 1938 (documents from the 1947 Convention indicate it was the 9th annual), though the earliest resolutions I have found are from 1947.

To date, I have read all of the resolutions I’ve located through 1969 (459 of them). They make for interesting reading, reflecting the science of the day and the progress of natural resource conservation in Missouri over the decades, from deer and turkey restoration to water pollution control. Since its inception, CFM has passed well over 1,500 resolutions on a wide range of topics, that have been sent to state and federal agencies, the Missouri General Assembly, the Missouri Congressional Delegation, Missouri Governors, the Secretary of the Interior, non-governmental organizations, and even to its own chapters, when it had them.

The resolutions fall into several categories: “courtesy,” funding, water issues, wilderness preservation, game species and habitat management, regulations, public access, conservation education and defense of the independence of the Conservation Commission.

Resolutions falling into the “courtesy” category express appreciation to clubs and communities hosting annual conventions, recognize service of various individuals to the organization and the growing field of natural resources conservation, and they also express condolences on illnesses and deaths. A resolution from 1967 offered condolences to the Board of the Edward K. Love Foundation on the death of their president Andrew Sproule Love. The Edward K. Love Foundation supported CFM’s early efforts.

We didn’t always get it right, and one series of resolutions makes me cringe, particularly one from 1949: “Whereas; the Conservation Federation of Missouri recognizes the splendid work of the Conservation Commission in furthering the use of multiflora rose as a living fence in Missouri and recognizing the benefits of the plant as wildlife cover; Be it therefore resolved that the Conservation Federation of Missouri appoint a special committee to study means of expanding wider use of multiflora rose.”

Ouch (though it was the science of the time)! CFM continued to support multiflora rose plantings, encouraging their chapters to emulate the Jasper County Chapter which planted 27 miles of multiflora rose fence in the county in 1955, and in 1965 “opposing legislation that restricts planting of multiflora rose.”

Water issues – quality, quantity, free-flowing streams – have been on CFM’s radar from the very beginning. A 1947 resolution opposed dams on the Current and Eleven Point rivers. In the years following, CFM is on record opposing dams on multiple river systems in and outside of Missouri, including the Meramec, Gasconade, Eleven Point, Current, White River, Buffalo in Arkansas, two dams on the Colorado River in or near the Grand Canyon, one in Idaho, and one on the Yukon River in Alaska. A 1959 resolution petitions the 86th Congress to amend the Federal Power Act to provide that “no license affecting fish and wildlife resources shall be issued until plans of the dam or other structures affecting such resources have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

Resolutions addressing water pollution control are frequent throughout the 1950s and 60s. For example, a 1957 resolution urges all local CFM clubs to take an active interest in water problems and adopt projects to promote water improvement, including soliciting local newspaper editorials and news items favorable to water pollution control and water improvement projects. Resolutions in 1960 and 61 call for legislation to create a bi-partisan water commission to study water and use and to develop rules and regulations regarding such.

In 1958 CFM opposed using Federal Funding for wetland drainage, and again in 1961 called for elimination of federal subsidies for wetland drainage and the creation of an international waterfowl commission with the United States and Canada. There was another resolution in 1962 requesting the US Congress to terminate authorization for federal cost-sharing for wetland drainage.

Public access has been a theme from early on, as in a 1947 resolution encouraging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to allow the Conservation Commission to manage land controlled by the Corps as public hunting and fishing grounds. The resolution also urged the USACE to ensure lands leased for agriculture were being used as such and not as private hunting grounds, and to revoke any leases violating this, and to operate navigation pools with minimum fluctuation.