Plan For Tomorrow (1962)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] out of the hills of Habersham down the valleys of Hall I hurry a main to reach the plane run the rapid and leap the fall out of the hills and the valleys down from the Piedmont and over the plain Savannah Ogeechee Altamaha Chattahoochee Apalachicola sat illa Suwannee Rock lockni Choctawhatchee perdido and Escambia [Music] out of 88,000 square miles of southeastern pine woods and farmland our rivers run down to the Gulf of Mexico and the sea [Music] and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and the river went out of Eden to water the garden [Music] and the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and the tennis and now God's eaten bears other names Eden what is Eden call it the good earth call it nature at its best call it the ultimate of man's use of land our blessings are many soils rich in kind and variety seasons long for growing rainfall an ample supply nature at its best its most productive appreciates the touch of man man sometimes wasteful sometimes wise the measure of a man's wisdom or a nation's could be expressed as the use of foresight and foresight so often depends on confidence in the future the sure conviction that tomorrow will come and must not arrive unplanned for like most nations in most centuries we've organised provisions for planning for overcoming potential disasters and for carrying out works and projects for our general benefit this is not totalitarian planning which forces people to submit to the will of a tyrant or a class but rather the patient pursuit by public servants of a humble objective you can serve to improve to increase the good things of earth for the next season the next year and for generations to come our planning needs have been met very adequately in the past but now that our age of earthly expansion is at an end existing agencies may begin to find themselves handicapped they may even feel insufficient to the tasks ahead the regulations and practices of an earlier generation are often stubborn barriers to progress our problems have a new complexity the bewildering speed of inescapable change catches many unprepared in 1900 2 million people lived in this area now nearly 5 million by the end of this century more than 10 million there were in the early 30s over 6 million farms in the United States today there are about 5 million with a corresponding shift of people into the cities by the year 2000 this picture will have changed even more at the same time increasing local opportunity had slowed the outward migration and the trend is reversing as population grows there will be increasing demand and competition for land and water resources when man first entered this wilderness he began to change trees fell in cities rose more food for more people made more farming necessary industry expanded and the new nations stood on the face of the earth our wealth and power depend upon land and water two resources for which there are no substitutes management of these resources involve certain problems and opportunities there are many ways of classifying these according to the purpose and the need flood control Fish and Wildlife soil and forest conservation sediment control navigation drainage and reclamation water quality control pollution abatement and public health electric power industrial development water supply irrigation and salinity control and recreation these are ordinary problems that face us now what of tomorrow what of the time soon become when more than twice as many people will inhabit this land the resolving of problems which overlap each other to a frustrating extent requires something special in careful comprehensive planning requires delicate coordination among all the people and agencies concerned to tie together the many specialized solutions in an era of population expansion a fresh approach is called for in 1958 the Congress authorized the formation of a commission to study these interrelated topics this commission was charged with the task of analyzing the situation and suggesting solutions for the best use of our land and water resources they were to seek the means to remove legal and fiscal barriers to open new doors so that existing agencies could interact more fruitfully the appointed commissioners represent the four states in the area and those public agencies most concerned with the problems there have been previous resource studies but the United States study commissioned southeastern river basins differs in several important ways first it was created by legislation which gave equal emphasis to the water and the land resources further all the commissioners state and federal were given equal status a very great advantage how do you go about planning so vast a subject is land and water uses first and foremost a number of questions have to be answered accurately what are the basic common needs of the people what resources are available for the satisfaction of these needs where are deficiencies surpluses bottlenecks how to work toward a state of reasonable balance between the distribution of population agriculture mining manufacturing and trade between cities and open space and outdoor recreation how to anticipate problems not yet arisen such a complex study to be truly effective takes time but by making the fullest possible use of the knowledge and skills of existing agencies by using local state and federal data and occasionally contracting for special studies by private agencies and university time and money have been saved cooperative agreements and contracts with both public and private agencies have enabled the Commission to do an effective job ordination at local levels has been accomplished through public hearings and personal contact with community leaders so many considerations so many separate pieces to be putted together into a giant four dimensional puzzle but like any puzzle the parts must add up to a specific and complete picture the pieces fall into roughly a dozen categories let's look at them one at a time first flood prevention and control since the early years of this century we've developed weather forecasting and warning systems and local protection works almost without number we have made great strides toward control over our sometimes unruly rivers we have learned how to coax and persuade our streams not to rush headlong and heedless to the sea we can be proud of our achievements in land conservation in discouraging the wasteful runoff of surface water plans for floodplain zoning and floodplain evacuation where needed river channel improvement stream diversions and the extension of existing control measures all our subjects for continued study already shifting patterns of population and land use are changing the nature and distribution of some flood hazards we must look ahead we are blessed with ample water but in the face of residential and industrial growth there is an increasing need to maintain standards of purity clean water is needed not only by people but also by many industries the growth of population chips in its distribution changes in the balance between farming and manufacturing our major considerations in this feed well we have an adequate supply now we must make better use of what we have new studies in industrial reuse and agricultural conservation of water will be very helpful but bearing directly on water supply are such related problems as the seepage of salt into groundwater in coastal areas and Pollution Control everywhere we're using 25 times as much water per person as 50 years ago even if the use per person does not increase twice as many people will need twice as much clean water and twice as many people will also dirty the water twice as fast as before consequently many more sewage treatment plants will be necessary and so far we have been unable to keep up even with current needs nobody needs to tell you that in an era of increasing population and increasing leisure more people will be using the same recreational facilities nobody needs to tell you either that no one should have to play in filthy water no study of any area could be complete without consideration of the needs of navigation a doubled population and the greater industrial growth per capita add up to at least twice as much industrial traffic and water will have to carry its share our waterways have great potential for industrial traffic there is a pressing need for activity aimed at modifying locks widening and deepening channels and otherwise updating existing facilities closely related are the problems associated with reclamation irrigation and drainage we had thousands of idle acres that could be reclaimed Sun to be used for building some for agriculture other thousands of acres must be provided with irrigation in order to increase productivity to meet expanding food requirements we must look ahead if we will need food for more people we will also need power for more homes and industries as with water our use per person of electric power is increasing at such a rate but by the end of the century we will need not merely twice as much but possibly three or four times our present capacity coal and nuclear powered steam plants will doubtless provide an increasing part of this but plans must be implemented now for further hydroelectric construction shortsightedness now will mean shortage later so far we've been talking about water but the study commission has been equally concerned with land obviously the two cannot be separated for example a major consideration in the dredging of navigation channels is that after 80 years of conservation work we're still losing in the southeast three million tons of topsoil every year from farms cut over woods and new residential tracks and roads the expense is tripled first we lose a priceless and irreplaceable resource soon we will no longer be able to afford this loss second the costly dredging to keep channels open and free of the mud which is constantly filling them and third we lose many years of the normal life expectancy of our dams their lakes slowly filling with topsoil further development of existing and new techniques of soil conservation is an urgent necessity if we're losing land of a sea we're also losing it to the city we are now losing nationally a million and a half acres every year of woodland a prop and pasture land to our growing towns and highways much of our best agricultural land is being swallowed up forever by the end of the century we will have to feed ourselves from one-third less land discouraging the growth of cities is not the answer stop at one place and it comes out somewhere else and slowing the population growth is not the answer in this century we've waited too long the situation is already out of hand we must plan for the best solution to a problem that can no longer be evaded at the end of the century we will need the house over 10 million people in an area which now contains less than 5 million our basic construction material is pine we will need then over twice as much lumber we do not have twice as much land to plant to prime at the same time we will be reading twice as many papers using or wasting twice as much wrapping packaging and other paper and paste boards four times as many trees on less land ridiculous and yet some solution must be found and steps taken now to ensure an adequate forest 40 years from now just as man has brought disaster upon himself by disrupting the natural balance between forest and open land and water so has he also strained the balance of forest life to restore and improve the natural ecology of our region this is a challenge we cannot ignore a responsibility we cannot escape if we're to pass on to our children the land worthy of the name of Eden there is much which we must do it could hardly be said that nature always benefits from man man however benefits from nature needs nature to prolong his life and to make whatever life he has seemed real and worthwhile man must return again and again to the fields and forests from which his ancestors came we can destroy we can also for our own pleasure and need build up again the loss of forest and topsoil is our fault we're losing our beaches - it's not our fault but we can do something about it we have to decide how much Beach we need we have to find out how much of it is salvageable and where we can afford to maintain it we must devise means to protect our beaches from the ravages of storms and hurricane to protect coastal towns and habitations from the same kind of damage is an even more obvious need these and many others equally urgent form the planning tests for which the United States Study Commission southeastern River Basins was brought into existence it is a formidable challenge the working of a study or planning commission must be limited such groups are not usually action or construction agencies their job is to make and recommend plans but they have no power to act on them they can only study conditions examine the future and devise ways to prepare for that future the impetus toward action must be yours in a free country any plan must spring from the needs of the people and must await its fulfillment upon the will of the people to act here then is our future a puzzle of many bits and pieces our past accomplishments our present trends and directions our future needs must all be studied thought about and fitted together into an organic unity each piece is meaningless except in terms of the part it plays in making the picture complete this is our planning challenge the free citizen in a free society must accept this challenge must study must evaluate must decide and then must act [Music] only intelligent study by many citizens can complete the planning picture and only intelligent action can bring this plan to life to plan for our future to conserve our resources to pass on to our children the world no less rich than we found it this is our challenge and our dream and has been since the beginning of things and must always be so [Music] [Music]