OCR Text |
Show time a Bureau of Outdoor Recreation has been established in the Department of the Interior and an Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission has recommended: "Because of the unique recreation and scenic values that certain rivers provide, the Commission endorses efforts to preserve them in their natural condition. Further study should be made to identify rivers or parts thereof that have these values." The Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture announced the appointment of a 5-man team to study the need for preservation and conservation of nationwide system of "wild rivers" particularly suited to outdoor recreation. According to these two Secretaries the assignment given the study team is to identify those portions of streams and rivers which have the highest outdoor recreation potential with the purpose "to dedicate them to such use by appropriate legislative and executive action." An August 15, 1963 news release lists a number of rivers or segments of rivers in the Upper Colorado River Basin that have been assigned for study. The news release states that there may be other streams equally eligible for study. This indicates that the following list is only partial at this time, and that other rivers, or parts thereof, may be included later: Mid-Continent Rivers Animas, Colorado Colorado, Utah Gila, New Mexico Green, Utah and Wyoming San Juan, Utah and New Mexico White, North and South Forks, Colorado Past experience related to the proposed Echo Park and Split Mountain Dams, Glen Canyon, and the Rainbow Bridge National Monument, the Curcanti Project, and others makes it mandatory that the Upper Colorado River Commission, as well as each of its member States watch this problem of "wild rivers" very closely. 29 |