the States in dealing with the Federal Government and cooperating with Federal agencies? Mr. EAGON. We believe it would be unquestionably, sir. This is the principal point as we see it. Interdepartmental committees have sincerely and conscientiously worked at this coordination, but in the final analysis the only way we can coordinate work between two departments is by the man to whom they are both responsible, and this is a means, which has not heretofore been available, for the evaluation impartially of the programs of the several departments which deal with resource matters and the focusing of the attention of the Chief Executive upon them. We believe this is a move in the right direction. Mr. STONG. Mr. Chairman, I suggest that the Governor's statement be included in the record. The CHAIRMAN. Yes, it is very important that it should be. It will be carried in the record at the end of your testimony. (Governor Di Salle's message to the Ohio State Legislature is as follows:) SPECIAL MESSAGE ON NATURAL RESOURCES Hon. John W. Donahey, Lieutenant Governor; Hon. Frank W. King, president pro tempore of the senate; Hon. Stanley Mechem, minority leader; Hon. James A. Lantz, speaker of the house; Hon. Jess Yoder, majority leader; Hon. Roger Cloud, minority leader; members of the 103d General Assembly of Ohio: A great wealth of natural resources exists in Ohio. These resources influenced significantly the early development of our State. They provide the firm foundation of our economy and our social structure today. Some of these soil, water, forests, and wildlife are renewable, if given proper care and intelligent management. Conversely, when minerals are extracted from the earth and used, they are gone. No efforts of ours can renew or replace them. Food and forest products come from the land. Water falls upon the land, and its behavior is related directly to the condition of the land and the manner in which it is being used. Our mineral wealth lies beneath the surface of the land; and in its extraction, unfortunately, the surface is sometimes greatly disturbed. Large areas of such disturbed lands deserve our attention, and demand our very best efforts to reclaim them, so that they may again serve the needs of our people. By the establishment of various boards, committees, and commissions, and by other unique provisions of law relating to the natural resources department, the general assembly signified its desire that the administration of natural resource matters be freed, as far as possible, of partisan political considerations. While I concur in this objective, I am of the opinion that there is a limit beyond which the creation of additional boards and commissions ceases to be a virtue. A department head, with statutory membership on eight or more such policy. making or advisory bodies, may devote too much time to receiving guidance and advice and too little time to acting upon it. Moreover, I am confident, at times, the advice is conflicting. I am of the opinion that the functions of some of these boards could be successfully combined; and the total number reduced. I am convinced no new ones need be created. One-fifth of the total land area of the State is classified as forest, and the wood-using industries are an important segment of our economy. Large areas, including many abandoned, or low-producing farms, should be reforested, and managed as woodlands. The reclamation of lands where coal or other minerals have been removed by stripping should be improved. So-called prelaw strip mine lands are of especial concern to me. In the absence of other satisfactory means for their improvement, I urge a program of State acquisition and development of such lands for forests, grazing, water storage, and recreation. Water problems are acute. Extreme hardship and economic loss results from either too much or too little. Despite the fact that Ohio leads all other States as an industrial user of water, State government has yet to assume the leadership and accept the responsibility for safeguarding our future. Floods and droughts are natural occurrences that cannot be prevented, but governmental action in the field of water management can minimize the disastrous effects of both. The same reservoirs that retard floodflow can provide water supply and recreation when properly designed for multiple-purpose use. Many potential impoundment sites have been occupied by homes, industries, highways, and utilities, and their use for water storage is no longer economically feasible. Prompt action is necessary if we are to protect those still available against similar occupancy. Acquisition of sites needed for future use should be provided for now, even though development may not be undertaken until some future time. Water developments, undertaken by political subdivisions and private interests, are uncoordinated. No agency of the State has legal powers to effect such coordination. Conflicts between user interests and geographical areas already exist. They will become more intense as demand increases. The existing water resources board is without legal powers or responsibilities. The division of water, department of natural resources, lacks the personnel and funds to perform many needed services. I urge that the general assembly give high priority, in its deliberations, to the water problems of our State, and that legislation be enacted and the necessary funds be made available to (a) Complete the basin inventory studies already in progress. (b) Establish State water policy. (c) Provide legal authority to enable the appropriate agency to perform essential functions of planning, coordination, and execution. The division of geological survey is concerned with the locating, mapping, and analyzing of mineral resources of the State, and with the publication of such information. In the latest year of record (1957) minerals produced in Ohio had a value of $385 million in the raw state, and before processing. Much of the effort of this division is in the field of public service to industrial interest. This service is essential, and contributes materially to the further development of new business and industry. Facilities and equipment of the division are inadequate, and do not compare favorably with that available to the geology agencies of adjacent States. This division is also the official repository of topographic maps. A cooperative project with the U.S. Geological Survey for the remapping of Ohio on a modern and improved scale has recently been initiated. The Federal Government matches State money on a 50-50 basis. The total cost to the State will be about $3 million over a projected 6-year period. This project, as well as the requirements for additional laboratory facilities and equipment, should be supported with the funds required to raise the level of service to a position consistent with Ohio's leadership in other fields. Recreational opportunities must be improved for increasing numbers of people. State parks, 54 in number, include 86.000 acres of land and water. Many of these lack roads, sanitation, water systems, and other facilities required for public use. Despite the fact that adequate funds for development of existing parks were not made available, new projects have been authorized and supported by appropriations. The effect has been to further complicate an already unsatisfactory situation. It is my desire that available funds be used to develop existing parks, rather than to initiate new projects. Those parks with the greatest potential for serving large numbers of people must have highest priority. Many new water impoundments will be created in the years ahead, primarily for water supply and flood control purposes. Rather than to acquire new areas and build reservoirs exclusively for recreation, it will be our policy to take advantage of the recreational opportunities offered by those created primarily for other purposes. Such a policy of multiple-purpose development will require less lands, and afford more benefits per dollar of investment. Responsibility for construction and maintenance of State park roads should be assigned to the highway department as is the case in some other States. Existing laws which preclude such an arrangement will be submitted to you. The alternative is to provide the necessary funds to enable the division of parks to build and maintain the needed roads. The boating enthusiast who wishes to use his boat on all the waters of the State now needs at least nine different licenses. The establishment of a system which provides for a single license, good everywhere in the State, is long overdue. I urge you to give careful study to the problems of boat identification, licensing, and the regulation of water traffic, and to enact suitable legislation. Finally, hunting and fishing are important to a million and a half or more of Ohio's citizens who engage in these forms of outdoor recreations. Ohio is fourth among all the States in the number of hunting licenses purchased, and fifth in the sale of fishing licenses. The approximately $3.5 million annual expenditure for these licenses is small when compared to the amounts spent for guns, fishing tackle, boats, transportation, food and lodging, and items essential to enjoyment of these sports. This is big business. While nearly a half million acres of public lands in Ohio are open to the sportsman, we will never be able to provide enough to satisfy everyone. More than 90 percent of all hunting occurs on private lands. The acquistion of land especially for use as public hunting and fishing areas, with moneys paid by the sportsmen in license fees, is desirable. It would be even more in the public interest if all available means, whether from special funds, the sale of bonds, or general revenue appropriations were applied to the acquisition of lands which can be used for water storage, flood control, hunting and fishing, boating, camping and other forms of recreation. The limited land area of the State will not increase. The only resource that is increasing significantly is the resource of people. More people will place even greater demands on all other resources. Our objective is, and should be, the use of each acre of land, and every resource in accordance with its highest potential for serving people-now, and for the future. The CHAIRMAN. I want to compliment you on your very able statement this morning. I think it will be of great value to the members of the committee who are studying these problems. It is clear you have made a very exhaustive and comprehensive statement here of the vital problems which we have to meet. It will be very helpful in our studies. Thank you very much, Mr. Eagon. Mr. EAGON. Thank you, Senator. The CHAIRMAN. At this hearing on S. 2549, the committee is receiving the benefit of the views and suggestions of a number of Governors. This will enable us to recognize problems from the point of view of the State governments, and to make provision for them in the proposed legislation. Strong support for the proposed resources and conservation bill has come in statements to the committee from Governor McNichols of Colorado, Governor Nelson of Wisconsin, Governor Brown of California, and Governor Williams of Michigan, and on behalf of Governor Di Salle of Ohio. On behalf of the committee, I thank these Governors for the time and effort that they have given to the full statement of their views. At this point in the record of the hearing, I insert a telegram received from the Honorable Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of the State of New York, in response to my invitation to testify at this hearing. (The message referred to is as follows:) Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, ALBANY, N. Y., January 27, 1960. Chairman, Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, Thank you for your invitation to testify on S. 2549. It is not possible for me to appear, but I have asked Harold S. Wilm, New York State conservation commissioner, to file a statement with you. With best wishes, NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER. The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the message from Governor Rockefeller, Mr. H. G. Wilm, commissioner of conservation of the State of New York, sent the following message, which will appear in the record of the hearing at this point: Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, ALBANY, N.Y., January 21, 1960. Chairman, Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, Governor Rockefeller has asked me to file a statement with you regarding S. 2549, the resources and conservation act of 1960. The establishment of a Joint Congressional committee on resources and conservation seems like a desirable action to provide a more coordinated legislative view of natural resource programs in the Federal Government. As to the proposed council of resources and conservation advisers, it would seem that there now exists ample executive channels for reporting on conservation programs to the President through established departments. For this reason it seems unnecessary to establish a new Commission simply for review and reporting procedures, and without executive powers. If anything new is needed to promote coordination of natural resource programs in the Federal Government, it might better be a single executive, responsible to the President, with powers of coordination over the existing natural resource programs in the several executive departments. Such an administrative channel was provided for water resources, in Mr. Eisenhower's water resources policy submitted to the Congress several years ago. H. G. WILM, Commissioner of Conservation. The committee has also received a statement from another distinguished New Yorker, the Honorable Herbert H. Lehman. Other Senators share with me the warm regard and deep respect for our former colleague who so ably represented the State of New York in the Senate of the United States. Many laws that are noted for their effectiveness and beneficial results are the work of Senator Lehman. In addition to his distinguished career in the Senate of the United States, Herbert H. Lehman also was one of New York's outstanding Governors, whose adminstration was marked by notable efficiency and high devotion to public purposes. It is a privilege, therefore, to read the statement that I have received from our former colleague, who also is a former Governor of the State of New York. [Reading:] STATEMENT OF HON. HERBERT H. LEHMAN, PRESENTED BY SENATOR MURRAY Senator Murray's bill, S. 2549, proposing a permanent national policy on the conservation, development and utilization of our forest, soil, water and mineral resources fills an important gap in the tools of modern government. The rate of operation of our economy surely requires an increasing availability of raw materials of every kind, as well as concerted policies for the conservation and development of the basic sources of such materials. The establishment of a Joint Congressional Committee on Resources and Conservation and the presentation by the President of an annual Resources and Conservation Report will supply the Nation with a much clearer basis for policy formulation in this field than we have previously had. Since the end of World War II when Congress established the Joint Economic Committee on Joint Economic Reports we have had, as a result of the work of that committee, a much clearer insight into the functioning of our economy. This experience gives us adequate justi fication for the use of the same approach in other vital segments of American life. Surely the rate of use and depletion of our natural resources, their management, and the charting of overall conservation policy should be subject to continuous review and coordinated study, and regular reports to the people. We have a large number of vital natural resource problems which are not being adequately managed through present conservation measures: A growing water pollution problem; 52 million acres of idle land, best suited to forestry, and in need of replanting; nearly 15 million acres of "dustbowl" land in the Southwest subject to chronic dust storms; literally hundreds of thousands of raw, eroding streambanks dumping silt into our reservoirs and harbors and rendering our streams and rivers unfit for human use; an explosive demand for outdoor recreational parks but inadequate funds and facilities for their acquisition and development; and many other problems in need of direct attention and early action. America has been blessed with an abundance of natural resources, exceeding those of most nations of the world. During the first three centuries of settlement on this continent, this very abundance led to a widespread waste. The conservation movement was instrumental in bringing this waste to somewhat of a halt. The two Roosevelts, Pinchot, Norris, and other progressive leaders of the past several generations have fostered important conservation policies by which we benefit today. But the time has come for a new and broadened approach toward natural resource management. Senator Murray's bill will do this. I hope that it receives the full support of all citizens and their Representatives and Senators in Congress. That concludes Mr. Lehman's statement. Another communication has been received from a distinguished New Yorker. The Honorable Lithgow Osborne, of Auburn, N.Y., had been New York's conservation commissioner and the excellent program that he directed was held in high regard throughout the Nation. Mr. Osborne's letter and the attached statement are as follows: Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, THE CITIZEN-ADVERTISER, Auburn, N.Y., January 20, 1960. Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: I have your letter of January 15th. Thank you for suggesting that I appear at the hearings on your proposed "Resources and Conservation Act of 1960." I regret that I cannot. However, I send my heartiest congratulations to you on the bill and on your speech introducing it. I am also enclosing a short statement in regard to it. If this should go to someone else beside yourself, please let me know. Yours very sincerely, LITHGOW OSBORNE, STATEMENT BY HON. LITHGOW OSBORNE, AUBURN, N.Y., NEW YORK STATE COMMISSIONER OF CONSERVATION 1933-42 My experiences as New York State conservation commissioner and my ob servations since then as a member of various conservation advisory bodies, convince me that the proper use and treatment of our natural resources is an enormously complicated problem with ramifications that cut across all aspects of the life of every American citizen and that it should and must be a matter of deep concern for every office and unit of government in this country, from |