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<br />083J58 <br /> <br />WILD AND SCENIC RIVERS <br /> <br />From the earliest colonial days, Amer- <br />ica's rivers have played a never-ending <br />role in the Nation's history. <br /> <br />Rivers continue to nourish our growth, <br />irrigate our farms, provide electric power, <br />and serve as avenues of commerce. But <br />in the course of time and development <br />many of the streams Americans once used <br />for recreation have become so polluted <br />they no longer are fit for human contact. <br /> <br />Only recently have we begun to re- <br />verse that trend. A 1963 study by the De- <br />partment of the Interior and Department <br />of Agriculture led to passage on October <br />2, 1968 by Congress of a Wild and Scenic <br />Rivers Act, Public Law 90-542, <br /> <br />In recommending that law, the Secre- <br />tary of the Interior and the Secretary of <br />Agriculture declared: <br /> <br />"America's rivers flow deep through <br />our national consciousness. Their courses <br />beckoned us to explore a new continent and <br />build a Nation, and we have come to know, <br />depend upon and love the rivers that water <br />our land. <br /> <br />"We have harnessed many of our <br />rivers, dedicating some to navigation, <br />others to power, water supply, and dis- <br />posal of wastes. But we have not yet made <br />adequate provision to keep at least a small <br />stock of our rivers as we first knew them: <br />wild and free-flowing. In a Nation as boun- <br />tifully endowed with rivers as ours, it is <br />:ime to do so." <br />