CITIZEN ACTION 581 



assortment of bottles and tin cans and even debris brought up from 

 the bottom of the river by scuba divers. 



We trust that citizen action of this sort will continue to highlight 

 public concern for natural beauty. Though citizen action in the 

 Nation's Capital may be peculiar unto itself, our Council would 

 appreciate the opportunity to exchange ideas and plans with other 

 groups interested in similar goals. 



Mrs. JOHN W. HENNESSEY, Jr. In New England we have faith 

 in the notion of the town meeting and I would like to suggest that 

 this is one way citizens can effectively make known what kind of 

 community they want for themselves and their children. 



Following a School for Citizens on Land and Water Use for the 

 Connecticut River sponsored by the Education Fund of the League 

 of Women Voters and financed by the U.S. Public Health Service, 

 representatives from 10 towns on both sides of the river in Vermont 

 and New Hampshire are calling town meetings called VOTE, Vote 

 for Tomorrow's Environment. We are tired of fighting unnecessary 

 interchanges, billboards, and riverside gravel pits when it is too late 

 to stop them. So we are systematically identifying our scenic areas, 

 unique natural features, historic sites, and recreation sites. We 

 are also evaluating the water in our river and its shore, our town- 

 scapes, and our roadsides. 



After the town meetings, we will meet as a regional group to 

 adopt priorities for preservation and recommendations for our local 

 citizens, their clubs, and their selectmen. Because we are convinced 

 that natural beauty in New England is not an amenity but an eco- 

 nomic necessity, we will present our inventories, our regional plan 

 and our recommendations to the State agencies concerned with 

 planning, forests and parks, agriculture and highways and to the 

 Connecticut River Federal Study now underway. We think we will 

 have developed a citizen consensus that will be of use in preventing 

 blight and preserving the values which have been so well described at 

 this conference. 



Other towns or regions interested in holding such citizen inventories 

 may find the materials and procedures we are using helpful. They 

 may be obtained by writing the Hanover Conservation Council, 

 Hanover, N.H. 



LESLIE LOGAN. The Arlingtonians for Preservation of the Poto- 

 mac Palisades is a citizen group, which in 15 years has succeeded in 

 preventing high-rise apartments and commercial encroachments 



