The following editorial appeared in the Broomall County Times-Picayune:"The Gordon Act, which established a wildlife refuge in the Big Dark Swamp, is currently up for reauthorization. The act prohibits the building of roads or cutting of old growth trees

The author argues that the Gordon Act should not be reauthorized until some amendments are made to include the same provisions as those in the wayne county. The author believes that the decline of bird population especially that of the dappled grackle is mainly due to hunting which is leagal according to the Gordon act. The authors argument rests on assumptions that have implications if the assumptions are proven to be unwarranted.

First, the author assumes that the habitats of the Wayne county marsh and The big dark swamp are the same. The wayne county marsh's habitat might vary hugely from that of the big dark swamp. It may be the case that the the habitat of wayne county is more suitable for certain bird species like the grackle. If that is the case then even after prohibiting hunting there would not be any significant improvements in the population of the bird species like the grackle.

Second the author says that hunting has been the main reason for the decline in the grackle population. He states this based on a comparision between both the countys but does not provide compelling evidence to rule out the possibility of any other causes. But he doesn't provide compelling evidence to show that hunting was in fact the sole reason for the decline in the population of the grackle.

Another assumption that the author makes is that the population of grackles in both the county is comparable.The Wayne countys population may be way less than that of the big dark swamp.If the case was that the as many as 1000 grackles inhabited the big dark swamp wheraas only 20 inhabited the wayne county. In a population of 1000 some birds might perish due to various reasons but when the size of the population is significantly less then there might be no or very few deaths. If this was the case then the authors recomendation would not have any effect on the decline of the grackle population.

The authors recommendation that the Gordan act should not be reauthorized until it includes provisions similar to that of Wayne county is flawed and needs to provide more specific evidence inorder for the recommendation to be considered.