282 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



have a pleasing environment, rational land use and variety and 

 beauty in the landscape. 



This brings us to one of the points that might be considered, 

 namely, the programs of cost-sharing, loans, credit, etc., which will 

 permit the private owner and operator to undertake good land and 

 water use practices and which in themselves may add to the beauty 

 of the countryside. 



We come also to the matters of control and the question of whether 

 or not control is important or desirable in adding beauty to the 

 countryside. 



May I give you just one personal example: Where I live, we 

 have a pond which for the last two years has been very muddy because 

 of siltation from a subdivision above the place, and I apparently 

 have no recourse. Should there be some kind of contingency placed 

 upon this, if public aids of one sort or another are made available, 

 or should controls be handled in some specific way? 



It brings the whole question before us of better cooperation be- 

 tween those who plan urban lands and those who plan the rural 

 lands of America, which, in many ways, is an extremely important 

 point with which we may deal this morning. Instead of rigid con- 

 trols there might be incentives of various kinds made available to 

 the landowner and operator and the communities in rural America. 

 These can be in the form of easements, development rights, tax 

 advantages, and so forth. 



Finally, our question involves the whole point of creating an 

 appreciation for this human environment with which we are dealing 

 in rural lands. 



Mr. WILLIAMS. If natural beauty in the vast expanse of rural 

 America is going to be lasting and more than skin deep, its achieve- 

 ment must begin with the care and management of soil, water, and 

 plant resources the primary ingredients of natural beauty in the 

 environment. 



Natural beauty in the rural landscape is rarely an isolated product 

 of a single special action. It is usually the result of man's activities 

 as he manages farm, ranch, or forest land to make a living. Beauty, 

 then, is often an important byproduct of measures that result simul- 

 taneously in bounty as well as beauty. 



You all know what these measures are : 



The sweeping contours of stripcropped acres that tie down erod- 

 ing hillsides. 



