443 



We must recognize that increasing populations and industrialization entail 

 costs — costs in environmental degradation which must be recognized and mini- 

 mized, if possible. Some destruction cannot be prevented. Progre.s.«, growth and 

 industrialization cannot be halted but they must be controlled. It is wise and 

 businesslike to do so. The cost of failure is aesthetic and economic loss. 



In planning local or statewide promotional and developmental activities, care- 

 ful attention should be given to all the ramifications of any course of action. It 

 has been shown many times that new uses of or additional pressures on the 

 marine resources degrade those resources and are detrimental to their desirable 

 attributes and contrary to the interests of previous users. We must be sure, for 

 example, that increasing industrialization on an estuary will not destroy an im- 

 portant fishery resource or interfere with an established and important tourist 

 or recreational industry, unless we wish to sacrifice those activities. Some uses 

 are mutually exclusive no matter how they are planned and carried out. Others 

 can be made compatible with careful planning. Still others are compatible from 

 the outset. Though we may be satisfied to allow one established economic use to 

 disappear in favor of another, we must know what we are about. 



One thing is certain, progress and virgin, pristine conditions are incompatible. 

 If Virginia has any areas which should be preserved in this condition, they must 

 be set aside at once. 



One of the keys to better planning is an eflacient, effective evaluation system. 

 At present, we employ numerous agencies, regular (VALC) and special appointive 

 commissions or boards, and various executive and legislative groups to evaluate 

 natural resource problems. In general, these have been somewhat effective but in 

 really complex problems they often bog down in spiralling rounds of ineffectual 

 investigation and reporting. They must be assisted. One ready way is for these 

 bodies to make more use of the scientific or technical agencies or bodies and 

 advice now available to them. Not infrequently, plans and management decisions 

 are made and laws and regulations framed and even passed that have no real 

 bearing on improvement of the resource other than intent. Quite often special 

 study groups are established by legislative resolution to answer resource ques- 

 tions that one or more state agencies are actively at work on and can already 

 answer. 



Resource engineering 



Because of the increasing complexity, urgency and magnitude of these resource 

 management problems, it would be wise to bring such techniques as Operations 

 Research, using high speed digital and analogue computers to consider the 

 variables and evaluate the possibilities and present a rated list of most likely 

 decisions for further consideration by human decision groups. 



Through the use of all adequate modern techniques, it should be possible to 

 improve the results of and shorten the time for decision making. This might be 

 called Resource Engineering. 



Resource planning and zoning 



In these times when a project to benefit one area along a tri]>utary might ad- 

 versely affect other economic interests, often some distance away, it is important 

 that official bodies and plans concerned with evaluation of an entire river system 

 be developed. One technique is establishment of effective and responsible regional 

 authorities with legal authority to, and responsibility for, zoning along an entire 

 system. Such a group should determine well in advance what marshlands can be 

 sacrificed, what amounts and types of wastes can be tolerated, which areas are 

 to be preserved inviolate for historical or aesthetic reasons, where residential 

 areas can be located, where industrial development can be encouraged and other 

 such matters. The most critical areas for this type of activity are the James 

 River system — and the Potomac River system estuaries in Virginia under greatest 

 pressure. 



Knowledge 



To solve present and future problems, maintain and improve the marine re- 

 source.?, permit better planning for development and use — no matter what the 

 mechanism for decision making — it will be necessary to have accurate and com- 

 plete information about the resources. While Virginia's scientists and others have 

 made a good start on acquiring this information and we know much more than 

 when effective work was begun less than twenty years ago, it is apparent that 

 we must learn more. Present knowledge is inadequate because the phenomena 



