384 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



the wealth and 17 percent of the taxes. This is going to double and 

 redouble, and it means more electricity. 



We are very much concerned that this great complex from ocean 

 to ocean may develop before there is serious thought and serious 

 action in getting something underway. We cannot talk of beginning 

 maybe in ten years. We think it should be expedited and it should 

 be expedited in a way that will not cripple the big public utility upon 

 which we depend. 



Dr. RICHARD GOODWIN. I would like to make one comment. We 

 have been hearing a great deal about the engineering problems in 

 getting power around the country and it is very evident that we will 

 have above-ground lines for some time to come. I am a botanist 

 by background and this conference, which is concerned with beauty, 

 should be concerned with the flora underneath these powerlines. We 

 are talking about many hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the 

 country. I would like to suggest to the panel that they consider mak- 

 ing recommendations to the President and to their companies about 

 giving more consideration to the hiring on their staffs of knowledge- 

 able ecologists to advise in the management of the vegetation. 



I will only refer to the problem of brownout, which many of us 

 have deplored, going across the country with the indiscriminate use 

 of herbicides. This is an unnecessary thing, and I think the power 

 companies can actually make a financial saving by using better eco- 

 logical techniques. 



WILLIAM CECIL. I don't have a local problem. I think we lost 

 sight a little bit of the natural beauty aspects of power transmission. 

 Power has to come in. It has to be transported. I would like to 

 suggest that a more, shall we say, conservative line of thought be taken 

 in clearing operations for the powerlines. A transmission line needs 

 a certain large amount of area, but not as much as has normally been 

 taken. Instead of chopping down all the trees, we should chop off 

 the dead trees that will fall on the line and leave the healthy ones 

 beside them. We can cut down the acreage with a little bit of land- 

 scape planning in the rights-of-way. We can do a lot to diminish 

 the course of a straight-line cut. 



I know, when you fly across the country, this is what we see, 

 a straight-line cut. I don't think it is necessary. I think that with 

 good planning on the part of the utilities, you can have your over- 

 head lines, which are the economic ones, and you can get your power. 

 What we are really discussing is the beauty of this country. You 



