298 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



We need to put some sort of a muzzle on one or two government 

 agencies that try to rule independently. When you have a beautiful 

 bluebonnet patch, we shouldn't let some individual come along with 

 pesticides or herbicides or with a mower and put through a cutting 

 at the height of the growing season. 



There are a few things of that sort in which there ought to be a 

 greater degree of coordination between Federal and State programs. 

 We need to increase our educational program. 



DANA L. ABELL. I am a newcomer to the Appalachian region, 

 having now a glorious time exploring the Blue Ridge parks and park- 

 ways. And I am most impressed not by the Ridge itself, but by the 

 surrounding lands and the beautiful rural area there. 



It has occurred to me that some of these areas are not long for 

 this world as far as beauty is concerned. And the idea came to me 

 that we should be thinking in terms of natural rural scenic preserva- 

 tion districts that might subsidize lands which are incapable of main- 

 taining agricultural production, but are important remnants of a 

 historical past and need preservation. These would be areas estab- 

 lished around the regions that we are preserving in their natural 

 state. They would be rural lands of great beauty, which are as im- 

 portant to our scenic heritage as the national parks. 



DAVID K. HARTLEY. I would like to make the point that the 

 only agency capable of really looking at all land in a State would 

 appear to be a State agency either a State planning agency or some 

 other kind of agency, that is concerned with land use planning. 



The point was made that statewide land use planning is necessary. 

 There is never going to be a large-scale conservation program with- 

 out the support from the central city people. And if conservation 

 is to be a legitimate land use that can hold its own, it must be bal- 

 anced off against other land uses. Therefore, it would seem to me 

 that this conference could well go on record as encouraging sound 

 land use planning in every State. This is the biggest lack now in this 

 country's planning structure. 



F. J. MACDONALD. Is there any way for this conference to go 

 on record encouraging the Federal Government to get some sort of a 

 mandate to the universities and to the soil and water people to start 

 a series of clinics? These could be advertised heavily and well at- 

 tended to help people in the areas that we are speaking of. 



