WSP12021

• File Number: 7630.285
• Description: Wild and Scenic - General
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 9/1/1973
• Author: DOI-USDA
• Title: Wild and Scenic Rivers - Authorized by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act - PL 90-542 - 10-2-1968 - Information Brochure
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

OOfl\i4S

-

"'Ve need rivers for commerce and
trade; but we al:\o need clean rivers to figh
in and sit by,"
President Richard ~t. Nixon

I

Bureau of Outdoor Recreation
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Rogers C. B. Morton, S.(I'I'lo"
AND THE
Forest Service
U.S. OEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
Eart L. Butz, S.n.roty

Washington, D.C.

WILD AND SCENIC RIVERS

From the earliest coJonilll days, Arner-
iell's rh'ers ha\'e played a never-ending
role in the :-:ation's history.

Rivers continue to nourh.h our growth,
irrigate ollr farms, provide electric power,
and serve as avenues of commerce. But
in the course of time and development
many of the streams Americans once used
for recreation have become so polluted
they no JonKer are fit for human contact.

Only l'ecently ha,'e we begun to re-
Verse that trend. A 1963 study by the De.
partment of the Interior and Department
of AR'riculture led to passage on October
2, 1968 by Congress of a Wild and Scenic
Rh'ers Act, Public Law 90-542.

In recommendinR' that law, the Secre.
tary of the Interior and the Secretary of
AJ{riculture declared:
"America's rivers flow deep through
our national con!lciousness. Their courses
beckoned U:l to explore a new continent and
build a :-;ation. and we have come to know,
depend upon and lo\'e the rivers that water
our land.

"We ha\'e harnessed many of our
rivers, dedkatinR' some to naviR'ation,
others to power, water supply, and dis-
posal of wastes, But we have not yet made
adt'quate provision to keep at le;:tst a small
stock of our rivers as we first knew them:
wild and free-flowinK, In a :\'ation as boun_
tifully endowed with rivers as ours, it is
~ime to do so."