487 



opment, conservation, and preservation of estuarine and coastal 

 resources over both the short and long range. In setting this as 

 tlie objective, it also should emphasize the importance of giving 

 priority consideration to nonrenewable resources and to main- 

 taining those resources and uses which are estuarine dependent. 

 While affirming the States' primary management responsibility, it 

 also should make clear the Federal Government's right and obli- 

 gation in two respects. These are, first, to directly manage the use 

 of estuarine and coastal zone resources where vital Federal inter- 

 ests are involved. The second is to provide continuing guidance to 

 the States in their important management decisions. Such guid- 

 ance includes not only advice and recommendations but also the 

 delineation of improvements which the States are expected to make 

 as a condition of Federal financial aid and support. 



To create the incentives which will provide the impetus for 

 needed State action, the new legislation should authorize a new 

 program of grants-in-aid to be used for estuarine and coastal zone 

 management specifically. Particular purposes of such assistance 

 should include the establishment of organization at the State level 

 for estuarine and coastal zone management, the administration of 

 that organization during its first years of operation, the develop- 

 ment of comprehensive plans to govern the use of specific estu- 

 arine and coastal resources, and research and training programs 

 in estuarine and coastal zone management. 



(3) On the third front of Federal action, the President should 

 issue an appropriate Executive order or proclamation calling upon 

 Federal agencies, the States, and others to make the maximum 

 possible effort under existing law to implement the objectives of 

 the proposed national policy in the interim before the national 

 estuarine management program can be activated. 



Role of Public and Private Interests 



Achievement of balanced development, conservation, and preserva- 

 tion of the resources of the estuarine and coastal zone for multiple pur- 

 poses will become a reality only if the public and private interests in 

 the nongovernmental sector want and demand it. This means that these 

 interests now must actively seek the establishment of the national 

 estuarine management program and, thereafter, give continuing atten- 

 tion and support to its administration at all levels of government. It 

 means too that these interests must themselves actively participate in 

 the administration of that program by taking part in the preparation 

 of use and management plans for specific estuaries and coastal areas 

 and through research and education, experimentation with new man- 

 agement concepts, their own programs to acquire and administer im- 

 portant sites within the zone to protect them from undesirable devel- 

 opment, and continuing evaluation and criticism of governmental 

 programs. Compliance with adopted plans in the activities which these 

 interests conduct on their own in the estuarine and coastal zone also is 

 absolutely essential. 



Conclusions presented in this chapter are developed in greater detail 

 in Part III. "Recommendations — The Proposed Program," of the 

 Report of the National Estuarine Pollution Study. 



42-847 O — 70 32 



