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largely resource-protection oriented, and the facility development 
which took place during the 1930’s was directed far more at providing 
employment than meeting, in a planned fashion, identified outdoor 
recreation needs.” ” Such thinking was in evidence when the national. 
park and forest systems were established in western areas of light 
population, far removed from the recreational needs of urban centers. 
It seems ironic that planners would recognize the need to preserve 
vast expanses of untouched wilderness in the remote corners of the 
Nation while ignoring the necessity of protecting the relatively limited 
coastal resources in the heart of the country’s most rapidly expanding 
regions. Not until more recent times have investigations by the 
National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Outdoor 
Recreation Resources Review Commission brought to light the need 
for a broader concern for all the issues related to satisfying the needs 
and the demands for all forms of outdoor recreation by present and 
future generations. These studies for the first time demonstrated the 
basic causal factors in outdoor recreation demand. In effect, they 
found that ‘adequate planning for outdoor recreation required larger 
concerns than the biophysical environment—that the economic en- 
vironment—expressing the preference of society for goods and services 
—and the institutional environment—decisions about the focus and 
characteristics of agencies charged with the protection of resources 
and the provision of outdoor recreation facilities—were equally 
important.”’ 18 
It is in this context that we have identified the area of shoreline 
recreation to be in critical need of effective planning and active land- 
use management. We have examined the sociology behind society’s 
need for outdoor recreation, the economics of shoreline supply and 
demand, and the institutional aspect of coastal zone management, all 
in recognition of the limited tolerance of this finite and valuable re- 
source to the rude invasion of man, and all in the hope that society will 
perceive the problems clearly and proceed to do something about 
them. The results of this analysis are outlined in the next sections of 
this article. 
Summary and overview 
The purpose of this section has been to provide a general picture of 
the national supply of recreational shoreline. While a detailed inven- 
tory was not included, it is possible to draw some general conclusions 
by looking at the overall situation. 
__ the first statement we can make is that the shoreline of New Eng- 
Jand in particular and the United States in general has been sold. 
Shore property is highly desirable for recreational use and as long as it 
is available there will be people to buy it, regardless of the cost. In 
every State the patterns of private ownership and development are 
similar: 97.2 percent in Massachusetts with high development; 94.4 
percent in Connecticut with high development; 90.4 percent in Rhode 
Island with high development; 88 percent in New Hampshire with very 
high development; and 98.7 percent in Maine with initially low but 
more recently a mushrooming development rate. Only in the northern- 
most parts of Maine are there relatively large blocks of shoreline that 
remain undeveloped, and even these are presently in the hands of 
17 Tbid., reference 1, vol. II, pt. IV, p. 321. 
18 Thid., reference 1; vol. II, pt. IV, p. 322. 
