WSP10556

• File Number: 7630.285
• Description: Wild and Scenic - General
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 6/1/1975
• Author: DOI-USDA
• Title: Wild and Scenic Rivers - Authorized by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act - PL 90-542 - 10-2-1968 - As Amended - Information Brochure
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

000'637

WILD AND SCENIC RIVERS

Juno 1975

From the earliest. colonial days, Amer-
ica's ri\"ers have played a never-ending role
in the Nation's history.
Rivers continue to nourish OUf growth,
-irrigate,ou.f falms, provide electric pO\....er; and
serve as avenues of commerce. But in the
COllr~e of time and development nuny of the
streams Americans once used for recreation
hll\'e become 50 pollutecl they no longer are
fit for human contact.
Only recently have we begun to re\'erse
,h"l trend. A 1963 study by the Department
of the Interior and Department of Agric.ulture
led to "ass"ge on October 2, ] %8, by Con.
gress of a \Vild and Scenic. Rivers Act, Public
Law 90-542.
In recommending that law, the Secretary
of the Interior and the Secretary of Agricul.
ture declared:
"America's ri\'ers flO\v deep through our
l1ationill consciousness. Their courses beckoned
liS to explore a new continent 3nd build a
N::nion, and we have come to know, depend
llpon and love the rivers that water OUT land.
"vVe have h;:l1llessed many of our rivers,
dedicating- .<,ome to JUvigiltion, others to
po\\'er, water supply. and disposal of wastes.
But \\-'e have not yet made adequate provision
to k~ep at least a .small stock of our rivers as
we first knt'w them: wild and free-flowing. In
Ii Niltion as bountifully endowed with rivers
as ours, it is time to do so."
Today a number of rivers have been
preserved in the National Wild and Scenic
Ri vel's System.
Others remnin, flowing through remote
wilderness areas or rural landscapes, and even
close to crowded urban centers.

Bureau of Outdoor Recreation
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
AND THE
Forest Service
U,S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Washington. D.C. 20240

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