In a speech given in Washington, D.C. on the 10th anniversary of the Keep America Beautiful campaign, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said, “This generation has been eyewitness to the longest broadjump of change in human history.” While we have conquered outer space, he said, “we have neglected the inner space that is our home, and we make make a shambles of our environment unless we act in time to save it.”
Science and technology, Secretary Udall said, holds the keys to the kingdom of abundance, and planning today has become an indispensable science in the field of conservation.
Secretary Udall pointed out that one of our national problems is one “of learning to live in harmony with our technological progress. Our dilemma is the result of super abundance rather than the eternal scarcity which has been man’s constant companion throughout human history.”
“It should be perfectly clear that no one has a right to pollute the air or water, or deposit the last remain areas of green countryside around our cities—any more than that 19th century raiders had a right to destroy the forests or the soil,” Secretary Udall said.
“The frontline of conservation,” he said “how stretches from uranium to wildlife, from salmon to soils, from wilderness to water.” The work of the 1960’s he emphasized can be a stepping stone to a balanced future. “The erosion of our environment will continue until we make public rights paramount, and put the future first,” he said.
This must be done y necessity, he said, because the path of conservation used for the past half-century is running into a dead end. No longer can forest reserves, parks and wildlife lands be created by a stroke of a pen, he stressed. In urging Keep America Beautiful to support the proposed Land and Water Conservation Fund which would assure “our children permanent access to our outdoor heritage.”
The funk, he said, would provide a continuing source of money to be divided on roughly a 60-40 basis between the States and the Federal Government, with the larger share going to the States on a matched fund basis to simulate recreation planning, acquisition and development.
Secretary Udall pointed out the, under proposed legislation, the funds necessary for this important conservation effort would be provided through auto admission stickers for recreational use of national forests, parks, and seashores; modest user fees for developed campground, swimming, and picnic areas revenues; from the sale of surplus
Federal real estate; and allocation of the existing four-cent tax on marine fuel used in pleasure craft.
In congratulating the organization on their efforts to combat litter-bugging, Secretary Udall said, “Your program of public education to instill in each of us a feeling of pride and responsibility for the appearance of our country plays a vital and integral part in maintaining and raising our cultural and ethical standards as a people.”
The text of the speech is attached.
