118 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



In this background, let us concern ourselves with problems and 

 programs : 



1 . We must preserve what we have inherited against misuse, mis- 

 management, or diversion to highway, school, parking, and other 

 nonpark uses. Federal grants-in-aid should, in both law and admin- 

 istration, make it unprofitable for States and cities to raid the 

 existing parks and open spaces. We need help for local governments 

 not only to acquire new open spaces but also to maintain the char- 

 acter and beauty of our parks. 



2. We must act now not next year or the year after to save 

 the essential sites and open spaces in and around our cities. The ex- 

 plosion is now. We need action from the Congress and the executive 

 departments and agencies on pending bills and programs to expand 

 authority and vastly increase the funds available, on appropriate 

 matching bases, for acquisition of open spaces in fee or by rights 

 and easements. 



3. We must immediately develop and exploit all of the various 

 means for continuing privately owned open spaces in accordance with 

 city and regional plans. However much we speed action for public 

 acquisition of parks and open spaces, we cannot possibly keep the 

 balance between what is built-up and what is left open, or maintain 

 the shape and form of the urban area by public ownership alone. 



Our national traditions of private ownership and responsibility can 

 be invoked and new tools must be added. 



(a) The private owner as custodian or trustee for property to be 

 passed on enhanced in beauty and in value should be emphasized. 

 From the start 75 years ago of the Trustees of Reservations in Massa- 

 chusetts, organizations to hold "beautiful and historic places" and 

 conservation and recreation areas have proliferated and expanded. 

 They should be encouraged by governments at all levels, by tax 

 deductions for gifts of land, easements, and endowment funds. The 

 more these private trustee groups can be persuaded to do, the less 

 public agencies will have to do. 



(b) The tools for preservation of open spaces in private hands 

 need sharpening and support by evidence of successful applica- 

 tion. We need information on how we can use such tools as rights in 

 land or easements, the legal bases for flood plain zoning or conser- 

 vancy or open space zoning, the dangers in preferential tax policies 

 and the advantages of tax deferral on classified open spaces. We need 

 to disseminate knowledge of how contracts among property owners, 



