172 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



where some of our best water comes from, I would like to suggest 

 that we append as a footnote to the conference the proceedings from 

 the conference we had in San Francisco six weeks ago. I suggest 

 this not so much for wilderness as for what that conference says about 

 the people problem that we have in California now. We found out 

 in that conference that we would soon cut our last redwoods, fill 

 our last bay, dam our last great canyon, and lose other such things, 

 unless man soon decides that it is not essential for him to double his 

 population every 40 years or every 15 years as we do it in Cali- 

 fornia. This is one problem that man does not have to assume he 

 can't do anything about. 



I think that possibly this panel might point out in its final recom- 

 mendations that the President should schedule a White House Con- 

 ference on Population Control, wherein the talent represented here 

 could attack this population problem, which seems to underlie all 

 the other problems we have been talking about. 



Statements Submitted for the Record 



MILO W. HOISVEEN. Giant reservoirs have been constructed on 

 the Missouri River in the States of South Dakota, North Dakota, 

 and Montana. These reservoirs permit the incoming waters to drop 

 their silt loads. The clear water is repeatedly discharged from the 

 series of reservoirs for downstream use. It immediately endeavors 

 to pick up its former silt load by eroding the banks and degrading 

 the channel. Hundreds of acres of land are stolen by the river from 

 landowners adjacent to the stream each year through erosion. 



Landowners in our democracy have historically defended their 

 land even if with their life. Protecting land against the river is ex- 

 pensive; consequently, he uses whatever means are available to him. 

 He attempts to retard erosion by bulldozing trees over the bank 

 or installing riprap through the use of old car bodies. Both are 

 unsightly and contribute ugliness to the many pleasure boat pas- 

 sengers that frequent the river. While those reaches of the river 

 below the system of reservoirs which are used for navigation can be 

 protected without cost to the landowner and the navigator, the land- 

 owner or a legal entity in these areas where barges are not in 

 evidence must furnish costly assurances which are difficult to comply 

 with. 



It is suggested that the White House Conference on Natural Beauty 

 urge that bank stabilization be provided in compliance with naviga- 



