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Show A Program for the Future An introductory summary of the Commission's basic concepts and recommendations for long-range goals, objectives, and guidelines, underlying the more specific recommendations in the individual chapters of the report. FEELING THE PRESSURES of an enlarging population, burgeoning growth, and expanding demand for land and natural resources, the American people today have an almost desperate need to determine the best purposes to which their public lands and the wealth and opportunities of those lands should be dedicated. Through the timely action of Congress, and through the work of this Commission, a rare opportunity is offered to answer that need. For reasons that we will detail, we urge reversal of the policy that the United States should dispose of the so-called unappropriated public domain lands. But we also reject the idea that merely because these lands are owned by the Federal Government, they should all remain forever in Federal ownership. We have also found that by administrative action the disposal policy, although never "repealed" by statute, has been rendered ineffective. In the absence of congressional guidelines, there has been no predictable administrative policy. We, therefore, recommend that: The policy of large-scale disposal of public lands reflected by the majority of statutes in force today be revised and that future disposal should be of only those lands that will achieve maximum benefit for the general public in non-Federal ownership, while retaining in Federal ownership those whose values must be preserved so that they may be used and enjoyed by all Americans. While there may be some modest disposals, we conclude that at this time most public lands would not serve the maximum public interest in private ownership. We support the concepts embodied in the establishment and maintenance of the national forests, the National Park System, the National Wildlife Refuge System, and the parallel or subsidiary programs involving the Wilderness Preservation System, the National Riverways and Scenic Rivers Systems, national trails, and national recreation areas. In recent years, with very few exceptions, all areas that have been set aside for specific use have been given intensive study by both the legislative and executive branches and have been incorporated in one of the programs through legislative action. We would not disturb any of these because they have also been subjected to careful scrutiny by state and local governments as well as by interested and affected people. Based on our study, however, we find that, generally, areas set aside by executive action as national forests, national monuments, and for other purposes have not had adequate study and there has not been proper consultation with people affected or with the units of local government in the vicinity, particularly as to precise boundaries. Although the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management classified lands under the temporary Classification and Multiple Use Act of 1964,1 we believe that in many cases there was hasty action based on preconceived determinations instead of being based on careful land use planning. In addition, there are many areas of the public domain 1 43 U.S.C. §§ 1411-1418 (1964). |