-3- 



As a result of this pressure, the seemingly inexhaustible supply 

 of tidal marshes, densely wooded shoref ront , and quiet swamp forests 

 of cypress and hardwoods has been severed and subdivided into isolated 

 fragments, and these in turn have been surrounded and threatened by a 

 variety of development schemes. Most thinking people agree that the 

 most significant and viable of these fragments should be preserved, 

 for the aesthetic and recreational enjoyment of present and future 

 generations, for the insight such systems can give us about an environ- 

 ment which however modified, continues to be of great importance in 

 our daily lives, and for the producitvity of our estuaries which we 

 have heretofore taken very much for granted. Unfortunately, there is 

 considerably less unanimity on which areas should be saved and how. 



