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Show private owners to preserve and improve their for- est holdings. The concentration of over 9 million people within New England, overwhelmingly as urban dwellers, and the proximity of New England to the great metropolitan centers of the Middle Atlantic States have given to the cool summer climate and the waters, mountains, and wooded hills of this region great recreational value. There is particular need for public recreational facilities which can only be provided by combined water and land programs. In this matter the Federal Government can play an important part, particularly in its further development of streams with reservoirs for flood control and hydroelectric generation, and its acquisition of national forest lands for watershed protection and wildlife and timber management. But plans for the development of New Eng- land's resources would fall far short of the mark if they did not give special attention to the needs of its urban economy. That economy is based primarily upon manufacturing which uses raw materials imported from other regions.8 It is estimated by the Department of Commerce that in 1947 New England employed 136.6 workers in manufacturing production for each 1,000 of its population. This was the largest proportion of manufacturing employment in any region in the United States. Every State in the region ex- cept Vermont was markedly more dependent upon manufacturing for income than was the case for the United States as a whole. Yet, as measured by this test, New England is today losing ground relative to the trends in other in- dustrialized regions. Since high income levels are equated with industrial activity, this is of regional importance. More significant is the shrinkage of employment and occasional factory abandonment in particular industries. When this occurs, it often has disastrous results for local dependent communities. Relative regional sta- 8 The sea fisheries are still valuable for some of the coastal towns or cities. Their protection and enhancement is an important question for Federal, State, and inter- national planning and action. So, too, for Vermont and in some parts of Maine and New Hampshire, the granite, marble, slate, and mica resources constitute the resource base for some of the smaller cities. bility and high average incomes in New England may thus obscure local economic instability. The best development and use of New Eng- land's water resources might have considerable influence in preventing such community decay in the industrial towns, and in stimulating new industrial activity. One obstacle to the location of new industry is the heavy pollution of some streams, particularly in the lower reaches where urban and industrial concentrations discharge great quantities of waste. This is a problem pri- marily within the legal jurisdiction of the States and localities, but it will require not only local and State action but Federal-regional planning for its control. A second possible contribution of water to New England's industrial welfare is the systematic de- velopment of its streams so as to (1) increase the developed hydroelectric capacity, and (2) im- prove the agricultural and industrial conditions along those river reaches where periodic floods heavily damage crops, structures, and community facilities. This is a region where private single- purpose development of many stream sites has already taken place, so that any program to maxi- mize the control of New England streams for human use will have to start with much "writing on the slate." Hydroelectric development in the region would be largely adapted to providing capacity to carry the peak loads of distribution systems. It would need to be supplemented by large supplies of electric energy from other sources to meet the day-by-day requirements of such systems. If regional power is coordinated, as suggested in chapter 15 on power, with private power systems in the region or with such sources of base-load hydroelectric power as the proposed St. Law- rence development, it might become a real force: in reducing New England power rates. Repeated study of the power rates in New Eng- land by the Federal Power Commission shows that these are among the highest in the Nation.. Industrial power rates are said to be 61 percent higher, while residential rates run from 50 to 20O percent higher than the low-cost areas of the Nation, with a corresponding low average resi- dential consumption. What an appreciable re- 911609-5C 31 |