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FOREWORD <br />The Council continues to flourish. Each year more and better papers are <br />presentedv our membership grows and becomes more activev and we take satisfaction <br />from the fact that the newly recognized field of conservation biology is something <br />we have been engaged in for nearly 20 years. The Council's pioneering efforts <br />in this respect were instrumental in pulling back several fishes from the very <br />brink of extinction. As we venture into the future we find ourselves bolstered <br />bylaws and methodologies that did not exist when we organized in 1969. However, <br />we must face the hard truth that such assistance can only serve to help us to <br />"hold the line" as demands on aquatic resources of the Desert Southwest reach <br />proportions that are almost incomprehensible at this date. We enter the future <br />optimistically, but realistically. Former Chairman Pete Sanchez (a man blessed <br />with more than an ordinary share of candor and pragmatism) perhaps said it best, <br />following the 1976 Supreme Court decision regarding Devils Hole: "It's good to <br />have won the first round of what will almost certainly be a 15-round event." <br />However* the resource we are trying to conserve is worth fighting for. <br />If it were otherwise., I seriously doubt that so many would have worked so hard <br />for so many years, and against such overwhelming odds. Following Symposium XVI <br />at San Luis Potosi, Mexico,, George Barlow of U.C. Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate <br />Zoology skillfully combined scientific and philosophical rationale in a thoughtful <br />discussion of why it is important for us to preserve such areas as Mexicofs <br />Cuatro Cignegas. His essay follows as a keynote paper for this compendium. <br />Phil Pister <br />Bishop, California <br />June 3, 1987 <br />IL