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Show gress should keep in mind the considerable receipts generated from the sale and use of the public lands and their resources. We see no alternative to making the Federal Government responsible for rehabilitating areas that were abused in past years. Where those whose actions resulted in lowered environmental conditions can be identified, and the terms under which they were using the public lands made them responsible for maintaining high quality environmental conditions, they should be required to fulfill their obligation. Generally, however, there were no such conditions, and to impose this responsibility on them now would, in our opinion, be unfair. Natural Areas Recommendation 27: Congress should provide for the creation and preservation of a natural area system for scientific and educational purposes. By 1968 Federal agencies had designated nearly 900,000 acres of public lands as natural areas, the individual units ranging in size from a few acres to 134,000. Similar preservation efforts have been undertaken on private and state owned land by states, educational institutions, and private organizations. Natural areas are protected to permit natural biological and physical processes to take place with a minimum of interference. The preservation of such areas is for the primary purposes of research and education. As the need to understand the ecological consequences of man's activities has become more evident, the preservation of examples of all significant types of ecosystems has become important to provide a basis for comparisons in the study of the natural environment. It appears that these requirements can be met with a relatively small amount of land. We approve preservation measures of this kind. The Federal land-managing agencies have proceeded quite independently in establishing natural areas, with no uniform guidelines for agency designations. We believe Congress should give formal status to the natural area program and provide for coordination to assure that all essential scientific and educational needs are met. The coordination we urge, perhaps by the Office of Science and Technology in the Executive Office of the President, would provide an inventory of sites valuable for ecological study, a plan to assure representation of all important natural situations, and the avoidance of duplication of effort. We also propose that educational institutions be encouraged to assume administrative responsibility for federally-owned natural areas under permit or lease arrangements with the Federal land agencies. Such arrangements offer assurance that other uses, such as recreation, would not be allowed to interfere Tests by the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the effect of urban pollution on white pines. Tree above was grown free of polluted air. The culprit is either sulfur dioxide, ozone, or an interacting mixture of both, which are primary ingredients in the urban pollution mix. 87 |