334 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



government structure is not geared for this battle, and that we will 

 need to create a new mechanism. 



The basic principle of the new conservation is the conserving and 

 developing of natural resources for people as against the classical 

 concept of protecting resources from people. In this light, I would 

 hope that we would consider first, the restoration of landscape that 

 best serves people. I would hope to see categories defined rather 

 explicitly and justified in sound economic analysis. 



Where we are contemplating the creation of housing or controlled 

 industrial parks, some of the necessary financial authority is avail- 

 able through Housing and Home Finance Agency programs. Where 

 recreation is a goal, it may be that authorization is available under 

 the Land and Water Conservation Fund. There are similar author- 

 ties in the agricultural appropriations for soil conservation and 

 reforestation. But the program that we are envisioning today even 

 in the areas covered by existing legislation will eventually require 

 expenditures so much greater than are now available, that the project 

 appears to assume the proportions of a wholly new program. 



One very important element is not covered in many of the existing 

 programs, and I think it is a key element : landscape rehabilitation 

 for the economic and other human benefits that a scenic asset can 

 contribute. Because we have never set an economic value on this, 

 it has always been treated as a secondary issue and the results have 

 been disastrous. 



Now we are at a point on which we cannot afford to be fuzzy. 

 Just to get the Federal Government involved in effective action 

 on this problem is going to require specific legislation. We will have 

 to extend to landscape rehabilitation the same cooperative concept 

 that has recently been enunciated for recreation facilities in the 

 Land and Water Conservation Fund and for urban renewal in the 

 Housing Act of 1965. 



To do this we will probably have to establish an authority similar 

 to HHFA to review conditions of blight and evaluate State programs 

 for dealing with them. I am going to suggest later some other func- 

 tions of a quasi-judicial nature that such an authority should be 

 granted. But at this time I am talking about the minimum neces- 

 sary to deal with this specific problem of static, historic blight 

 through cooperative programs with the States. 



Two difficulties with the suggestion can be met right here. First, 

 we will almost certainly run into the automatic objection that many 



