Re 4 A, OW Conservation 
F.. countries have been endowed with such an abundance of resources and natural beauty 
as the United States. The great outdoors was the setting in which our people developed and 
grew and built this mighty nation. The use of natural resources has enabled us to attain a 
position of economic well-being unsurpassed in world history. Now we have the opportunity 
as well as the responsibility to manage our resources for beauty as well as for use. 
In his message to Congress on natural beauty, delivered on February 8, 1965, President 
Johnson presented a stirring challenge to all Americans. He called for a new conservation, a 
creative conservation of restoration and innovation. He said that this new conservation must 
be concerned with the relation between man and the natural world and that beauty and 
man’s opportunity to enjoy it must assume a major role. 
Natural beauty is perceived by all of us in the large grandeur of a wilderness, the small world 
of a pond, the stillness of a desert, the cry of birds in a flowering meadow, and all the other 
sights and sounds of the American outdoors. Over the years, the Forest Service of the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, State Foresters, and other public and private resource managers 
have been developing a philosophy which integrates beauty with the managed use of natural 
resources. This philosophy includes an understanding of the productive forest and range at 
work in meeting human needs, and an appreciation of the harmonious interplay among the 
elements and uses of the forest environment. It emphasizes the fuller appreciation of beauty 
that comes when nature and land use are viewed with an understanding eye. This understand- 
ing sees elements of beauty, order, and design in natural scenes and in the everyday drama of 
resource use that might otherwise go unseen. Then every trip to the out-of-doors becomes more 
meaningful and enjoyable. The application of esthetic principles to land management gives 
form and substance to the philosophy of beauty and utility. 
