52 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



ship. We own 45 percent of California and 64 percent of Idaho. 

 When you get into the east, this great metropolitan area from here to 

 Boston, our land ownership is highly inadequate. 



If we can bring these resources under control through all these 

 Federal agencies, for the benefit of our children, we will have an im- 

 mense opportunity in the future. If we don't and if we continue the 

 depletion and the nonuse and misuse of these Federal lands, we will 

 pay a terrible price. 



Today conservation has come into its own. Through joint plan- 

 ning and joint effort, Federal, State, and local, we have a great op- 

 portunity for improving the natural beauty of this country. 



Mr. PENFOLD. The Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Com- 

 mission, as a major item of its report, recommended establishment of 

 a Recreation Advisory Council to assure application of high stand- 

 ards, to achieve full coordination at the Federal level, and to en- 

 courage these same goals at State and local levels, including the 

 private sector. 



The public is concerned with coordination as it results, or fails to 

 result, in high standards of accomplishment, and as it provides or fails 

 to provide clear channels through which the public can effectively 

 voice its needs and desires, its apprehensions, disappointments, and 

 complaints. The public couldn't care less about the mechanics for 

 achieving day-by-day accommodations between competing agencies. 

 The public mostly sees the lack of meaningful coordination demon- 

 strated in very real, down-to-earth situations. One arm of govern- 

 ment drains productive wetlands while another develops wetlands for 

 the same productive purposes; one arm of government seeks to set 

 aside areas for natural beauty and human enjoyment while another 

 bulldozes, or chops, or floods its way through precisely such areas. 

 There's a long and agonizing list. 



The need for the partnership approach among Federal-State-local 

 levels is obvious. But the partnership must be more than just among 

 governmental agencies as such. We cannot assume that the vigor 

 of an idea or the validity of a complaint will survive the long 

 journey from the citizen through the treatment works and filter 

 beds of successive layers of bureaucracy. The public in some way 

 must participate vitally in the policy determination field at all levels 

 and help provide the basis for essential political push. 



There is scant evidence yet that RAC is achieving these goals. 



