LITERATURE CITED 



Meeks , Gordon, Jr. A Louisiana Swamp 

 Story, Planning Vol. 46, Number 

 2, February 1980. 



DISCUSSION 



Question: Clark. I feel a little 

 more hopeful now that the coastal 

 management program will involve it- 

 self in watersheds, but you've got 

 one little problem up there, it 

 goes something like this: we con- 

 servationists over the years have 

 taken on the dredgers , point-source 

 polluters, the wetland fillers, and 

 real estate interests. We have 

 even taken on the nuclear plants. 

 Now it is 1980 here on the 

 coast and I ask who is next? Who 

 are we missing? Who are we not 

 taking on? Well of course, I think 

 we all know that it is time to take 

 on the farmers. The CZM won't take 

 on the farmers. The Corps of En- 

 gineers refuses to take on the 

 farmers. The EPA tried it, got 

 whipped and quit. That is my ques- 

 tion, who will take on the farmers? 



Answer: Miermet: It is a very 

 difficult thing. California, in plan- 

 ning for their coastal zone, has a 

 much larger boundary when they tried 

 to address the issue of the very pro- 

 ductive agricultural lands there and 

 they tried to get some handle on the 

 management aspect but that was re- 

 jected and the boundary was quite 

 a bit narrower than the coastal 

 commission had proposed. It took 

 out the forests and the agricul- 

 tural lands. I think in a state 

 like Louisiana when you fly over 

 it, you see the wetlands and the 

 agricultural lands side by side. 

 Most states do have some policies 

 that address agriculture and the 

 purposes. I think that most states 



find that as being the highest use 

 of the coastal zone, however, it 

 is not so much a regulation as it 

 is some other aspect of trying to 

 protect agriculture. 



Question: My name is Chris 

 Temke. I'm with the Florida Depart- 

 ment of Natural Resources: I just 

 wanted to elaborate for a moment on 

 a point that Ben made earlier this 

 afternoon that there was a definite 

 lack of data which are needed to 

 understand what the problems are in 

 the estuaries, and what steps should 

 be taken to resolve the problems and 

 to mitigate these problems. I think 

 the national estuarine sanctuary 

 problem fits quite well in trying 

 to answer this question. One of 

 the major purposes of the program 

 is to set aside areas for long term 

 research and education, to establish 

 a data base, and to understand what 

 a relatively or completely undis- 

 turbed system is like, and I feel 

 as though these areas are new. 

 They have only been in existence a 

 few years and should be looked at 

 quite closely by people that are 

 thinking about doing research. 

 Certainly, in the area of Rookery 

 Bay, I'm trying actively to bring 

 university people down here to do 

 research, so we can develop a data 

 base in this area which can be used 

 to help develop a coastal zone 

 policy. 



Comment: Clark. Beyond this 

 research and education, I have no- 

 ticed lately that some of the estu- 

 arine sanctuaries have an agenda of 

 conservation or resource management 

 as well. Certainly Apalachicola , 

 Rookery Bay, and Alcorn Slough have 

 really increased the state-of-the-art 

 as far as estuarine management is con- 

 cerned. I think that there is more 

 progress made in ultimate long-term 

 benefits and coastal zone manage- 

 ment in the estuarine sanctuary 



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