LANDSCAPE ACTION PROGRAM 487 



Second, that funds be made available to establish a series of pilot 

 programs of local countryside inventory, analysis and design within 

 these same institutions. 



Mr. NICHOLSON. Following Dr. Grafts, I would like to return 

 to the question of what natural beauty means to this conference. 

 It seems to come by means which certainly are not natural. Simi- 

 larly, landscape is a scene. Landscape action is a deceptively simple 

 label for an extremely complicated and difficult process. I say this 

 not in criticism but just to remind us that at the end of the day our 

 task is to knit together all the knowledge and experience and good 

 intentions and existing organizations into a continuous and endur- 

 ing flow process based on the right idea systems to harmonize the 

 countless human actions with countless natural resources, some 

 static, some no less dynamic than ourselves. 



Landscape itself is one of these idea systems. To many, it still 

 means nothing at all. Where man is at work, landscape implies some 

 visual expression of a fruitful two-way relationship between man 

 and landscape to produce what we call here a high-quality environ- 

 ment. Yet, today's landscape is too often chaotic, reflecting muddled 

 thinking, confused values, and shortsighted land use practices. 



We have learned that it will be good for us in many ways if we 

 attain a harmony between man and nature, and it is bad for us 

 if we do not. We have heard this from Mr. McHarg. How many 

 Americans really understand this as the Chinese understand it and 

 have understood it for centuries? So far, Western man has expected 

 nature to do all the adapting. Where nature has failed to adapt, 

 man has been slow to accept the fact, but now it is his turn to accept 

 his obligation. 



Our task, as I understand it, on this panel, is strategic, not tactical. 

 We are here to help those who cannot see the wood for the trees. 

 But we must not forget to show them a way through the woods also. 

 We need to show how problems, each large in itself, can be 

 fitted in to a clear group of problems. In this we can be helped 

 by the great synoptic disciplines of economics and ecology which 

 teach us how to organize and interpret data on a grand scale. 



I am lucky to have followed Prof. Lewis, because I think the work 

 he has been describing is among the best examples I have ever seen 

 of how a great mass of data can be organized and presented in a 

 meaningful relation to each other, not just left to hundreds of differ- 

 ent workers. This is exactly the way we have to go about it. 



