51 



The basic point remains however, that if we can get joint Federal 

 State phinning we will be bringing together in the field those State 

 officials and those Federal officials who will be called upon to actually 

 design and carry out specific management programs and the shared 

 experience of joint plan development by State and Federal agencies is 

 a substantial argument for joint planning. 



Let me note briefly that the New England River Basins Commission 

 is involved now^ in planning for use and development of the coastal zone 

 of the region. The commission is an agency which consists of eight 

 Federal agencies and representatives designated by the G'overnors of 

 the six New England States and the State of New York. 



The Congress this year, the House of Eepresentatives, has just 

 approved an appropriation of $200,000 for the New England River 

 Basins Commission for a commission study of water and related 

 land resources of southeastern New Englancl. This area was selected 

 by the Commission as that subregion of New^ England which was 

 most in need of joint State and Federal efforts to design action pro- 

 grams for the management of resources. 



The area includes Cape Cod, Narragansett Bay, Hudson Bay, 

 Boston Harbor, a great complex of coastal marshes and of course 

 the rivers and their related lands in this area. 



The planning program will be directed by the joint Federal author- 

 ity set up by the Commission, The States of Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island have agreed to provide professional stafi to assist in the direc- 

 tion of the study and it is our intent in this study to develop a joint 

 action program with reports addressed both to the Governors and to 

 the State legislatures, recommending the authorization of programs 

 and the appropriation of funds as well as to the water resources 

 council and the President and the Congress at the Federal level. 



Through studies like these our Com^mission has assumed from the 

 beginning that we have a statutory responsibility to prepare plans 

 and make recommendations for the management of coastal waters 

 and related lands. I should note that planning programs of these 

 kinds tie together in rivers and estuaries in ways that are responsive 

 to the point made bv Mr. Sessums relative to the effects of river 

 development on estuarine systems. 



We have also been trying to figure out how to get joint Federal- 

 State planning under way in other parts of New England, the Maine 

 and New Hampshire coasts and the Connecticut and Long Island 

 Sound areas. The State of Maine has provided some leadership here 

 and is organizing and now has underway or will soon be on a Maine 

 coastal development plan. They are picking several Federal offers to 

 get money for this: 701, the Water Resources Planning Act, and 

 perhaps one or two others. 



The interesting thing about this is that the approach we have worked 

 out between the State of Maine and the Commission is that funds will 

 be also made available through the New England Regional Commis- 

 sion, an economic develoioment body, so that our Commission can 

 secure some coordinated Federal inputs in the State plan to accom- 

 ]:)lish the kind of coordination that I have been talkin.o- about before, 

 and vre hope to duplicate this pattern in other coastal areas of New 

 Eno-land. 



