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In my remarks this afternoon I will concentrate on the coastal zone 



and the Great Lakes, because that is where our marine missions are. 



These are also the marine areas which most concern you in the States. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COASTAL ZONE 



Our oceanic and Great Lakes coastal areas are uniquely important 

 for a number of reasons which most of you have heard many times, 

 but the most important reason relates to people. People have chosen 

 to live there in great numbers. 



The counties of the conterminous Ijnited States which touch the 

 oceans or the Great Lakes currently contain only 9 percent of our 

 land, but 41 percent of our people. Looking toward the future, projec- 

 tions indicate that the population and productivity of this peripheral 

 band are growing at a rate faster than the Nation as a whole. 



Why is this so ? 



Some say ports. Others say fishing or industry or esthetics or recrea- 

 tion. Still others lay it to historical inertia and say that the "coastal- 

 ness" of this band is of little significance to its growth. 



Several years ago the Department of Commerce conducted a study 

 of the type and magnitudes of oceanic values implicit in the "coastal- 

 ness" of this region. Since analyses of this type are certainly a little 

 like adding oranges and grapefruit, most people will not want to take 

 these figures as absolute. 



But they can serve as indicators of order of magnitude economic 

 values actually accruing to our Nation in the mid-1960's. There are, 

 of course, many other nonmarket coastal values which cannot be de- 

 picted in such a chart. The corps activities relate most prominently 

 to those sectors labeled transportation and recreation; however, to 

 some extent we are active in all these sectors, as are many other Federal 

 agencies. 



Whatever the reasons, the logic, the rhetoric, the emotion or the 

 euphemisms — the important thing is that the people have and are 

 voting for the coastal zone by going there and staying there — and 

 that is a type of evidence that really counts. 



Our Nation must develop, use and preserve this highly valued strip 

 in a comprehensive, wise manner. 



THE ENGINEER — ^PLANNER 



The corps role in the coastal zone is primarily that of the engineer, 

 in its broadest sense. Engineers take the discoveries of man and use 

 them to satisfy the wants of man. They are in the middle. 



Looking one way, the engineer is a customer of science and makes 

 his demands known by focusing priority on the knowledge gaps which 

 need to be filled. 



Looking the other way, the people are his customers. His product 

 has significance only to the extent that it corresponds with their wants. 

 Because of lead times, the general interrelationship of things done 

 now to things done later and many other considerations, the engineer 

 needs to know the people's wants as far in advance as possible. 



Thus the alert engineer, the one who really injects his expertise into 

 the social fabric of his time and his Nation, will always be deeply 



