Multiobjective river corridor management

Ms. Danielle Nierenberg
National Park Service
Rivers, Trails & Conservation
Assistance Program
Washington, D.C.
August 8, 1995
Dear Danielle,

This is in response to your call of July 24 and your interest in multiobjective river corridor management. I regret not getting back to you sooner. We are in the midst of planning for our 1996 budget and I wasn't able to get to your request when I hoped to.

You indicated an interest in determining: 1) where the multiobjective river corridor management concept originated; and, 2) background information on the origin of the McDade-Udall
Multiobjective Rivers proposed legislation.


Multiobjective Approach

My sense is that locating the exact origins of multiobjective river corridor planning and management is a substantial task. Despite the innovations of the last ten years, my research, indicates that the multiobjective river approach has been around for more than 30 years.

The earliest printed material on the concept of multiobjective river management, which I have found, reflects the environmental corridor work of Phil Lewis at the University of Wisconsin; a regional planning commission greenway effort within the Boston, MA. metropolitan area; the non-structural flood loss reduction work of Rita Barron and the Charles River Watershed Association on the Charles River in MA.; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water resources planning work of the early 1960's; the river corridor and landscape protection work of Charlie Morrison of New York State; and the land advocacy work of Rutherford Platt, then of the Open Lands Project in Illinois.

Each of these individuals, and organizations, appeared to be doing work in the 1960's which reflected the principals of multiobjective river corridor management. Although each of the noted efforts does


not include a comprehensive approach to multiobjective, each initiative clearly illustrates the desire to recognize, protect, and use multiple values and functions of river corridors, watersheds, open spaces, or other landscape systems.

Time doesn't permit me to look within my files for specific references, however, I'm sure most of these efforts are familiar to you and Chris. The U.S. Army Corps document is from 1962 and may
be available from Kyle Schilling, at the Virginia Water Resources Research Office, or from Curtis Clark, formerly of the COE and now at the USEPA Wetlands Office in Washington, D.C.

The work of Phil Lewis is quite widespread and some of his early studies, for specific geographic locations are most interesting. The metro-Boston greenway work, also from the early 1960's, came from some H.U.D. "701 Open Space Planning" work on New England river corridors.

Rita Barron's work on the Charles, and Charlie Morrison's work on the Upper Delaware River in NY and PA, are both pioneering multiobjective efforts which have been well documented. Although both have retired, their work is still available from their former employers.

Each of these efforts, plus others such as Dr. Charles Wharton's "Southern River Swamp", Ian McHarg's work on the Potomac, EPA's early "Emerging Greenway Opportunities", and the greenline parks movement work of Kevin Coyle, Chuck Little and Jon Kusler, helped to shape the approach we developed for river corridor planning and management in Philadelphia in the late 1970's. The "Riverwork Book", eventually published by NPS in the early 1980's reflected a hybrid methodology aimed at the integration of environmental, community and economic values and functions.

Interestingly, since you asked about his role in multiobjective, Jon Kusler's direct participation with the NPS rivers work did not begin until the mid-1980's when Jon and I tried to merge river and wetland protection interests at a conference at Silver Bay, NY. Although Jon's 1976 work with Chuck Little, as part of the National Urban Recreation & Open Space Study, had contributed to our thinking about multiobjective efforts from a landscape protection perspective, it was nearly ten years before the first river corridor collaboration. My sense is that Kusler's multiobjective work may have also been influenced by Lewis and Platt.

While the Riverwork concept was aimed at river corridor protection, we used the multiobjective approach to implement heritage corridors, conduct related-land strategies for NPS units and design greenline park projects as well.



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McDade-Udall Legislation

The McDade-Udall multiobjective river legislation grew out of these members interest in river protection and their perceived desire to do something to advance the National rivers protection movement. Both McDade and Udall had been supporters of wild and scenic river protection work and the Rivers & Trails Program.

Congressman McDade's Upper Delaware River effort incorporated multiobjective concepts into this privately owned, locally managed National Scenic and recreational River. Although an area of great controversy for sometime, the intent of the Upper Delaware effort was to simultaneously protect the environment, be sensitive to community needs and allow people to prosper.

After the successful completion the Upper Delaware River project, using the Rivers & Trails Program, Congressman McDade requested NPS, through Director Bill Mott, to hold workshops with river conservation leaders across the U.S. to discuss ways which the federal government could assist states, local governments, and private groups to protect and revitalize river corridors.

The process which was used, and a documentation of the results of these meetings---including the proposed legislation, should be available from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office of NPS. Robert Potter, Mark Apel and Martha Crusius, were three of the staff who assisted with these meetings. I believe Martha and Robert are still with NPS, and should be able to help with some of the background. A draft report summarized the results and process.

Despite strong public support for the McDade-Udall Bill, the proposed legislation was not given any attention by the Chairman of the Authorizing Committee, Bruce Vento. Although a long-standing advocate for federal river protection, Vento was a staunch opponent to the idea of cooperative river protection which attempted to meet multiple objectives. Strongly believing in strict protection, through outright federal and state land acquisition, he commonly referred to these types of efforts as "approaches of political convenience".

Unfortunately, despite the continued interest in this concept, the multiobjective bill was never reintroduced. Congressman McDade turned his interest in multiobjective river management toward the Lackawanna River within his district in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, while Congressman Udall's experienced serious health problems.

I hope these somewhat rusty reflections are helpful to you. Your task is an important one, for there is enough of a history to the



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multiobjective approach to gain some experience for the future. My you be successful in your search.

Sincerely,




J. Glenn Eugster
Associate Director
Ecosystem Management








































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