The Right Direction

The Right Direction: Improving the Environment for Future Generations
By J. Glenn Eugster, Assistant Regional Director, Partnerships Office,
National Park Service, National Capital Region, Washington, D.C.
Saturday November 6, 2004

Prepared for George Washington and the Potomac
River: The George Washington Symposium
November 5 & 6, 2004



Summary & Introduction

The environmental quality of the Potomac has improved dramatically over the past four decades, but it still has a long way to go. What further steps can be taken to restore the river to its former grandeur? What new threats--such as the insatiable snakehead--are on the horizon?

Before they became my life-work rivers and streams were my first love.

My Mother's parents were farm workers from Poland. My Father and his parents were dairy farmers from Switzerland. For as long as I can remember my Mother gardened and Father did landscaping for pleasure, as well as profit in a home we lived in on the North Fork within New York's "East End". My parents lived where they did because it had open space, farms, rural life and diverse water bodies for fishing, swimming, boating and beachcombing.

During my childhood I always had some type of boat and would wander up, down and around the tidal marshes of Brushes Creek a tributary of the Great Peconic Bay. If I close my eyes I can still feel the sun beating on my shoulders and the smell of the salt and the muck, as I dipped for blue crabs among the wetlands, fiddler crabs and waterfowl. Standing in my flat-bottom boat, I could feel the temperature of the stream change as I maneuvered from the main channel to the tidal flats.

Many people have had love affairs with the Potomac and its tributaries. Justice Douglas once said this about the Potomac. "It is a refuge, a place of retreat, a long stretch of quiet and peace at the Capitol's backdoor. A wilderness area where man can be alone with his thoughts, a sanctuary where he can commune with God and with nature, a place not yet marked by the roar of wheels and sound of horns".

All of us have been shaped by our love affairs with rivers like the Potomac and our feelings motivate us, as they did Justice Douglas, to take action to protect and restore these special places.

The Right Direction? Future Steps?

My topic brings to mind D.W. Meining's, ”The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene”. Meining said, “that even though we gather together and look in the same direction at the same instant, we will not—we cannot—see the same landscape. We will see many of the same elements, but such facts take on meaning only through association; they must be fitted together according to some coherent body of ideas”.

Meining went further to say, “any landscape is composed not only of what lies before your eyes but what lies within our heads”.

Some of my views of the Potomac are:



Ten Views of the Potomac

Potomac as nature
Potomac as habitat
Potomac as artifact
Potomac as ecosystem
Potomac as people
Potomac as commerce
Potomac as history
Potomac as recreation
Potomac as place
Potomac as aesthetic



Surely, from your perspective there are many other views of the Potomac. Each of these views is a value that a community a region or we as individuals hold special.

The focus for this session is to highlight the condition of these values, touch on the influence that the future may have on them and outline what we can do to protect or improve their quality.

Despite the prevailing optimism of Americans we have diverse views about the future. Noelle Nelson, while doing research for her article entitled "Beliefs About the Future", asked people, "When I look out there, in the future, what do I see?" Ms. Nelson's research revealed that most people think that the future is:
A great big yawning-pit of nothingness.
Controlled by forces outside of yourself.
A terrifying and fearful place!
All rosy and wonderful!

Predicting the future often involves some type of visionary planning. Russell Ackoff, in an article for Wharton Magazine, once wrote, "Most of the planning I have seen in about 250 American and foreign corporations is like a ritual rain dance performed at the end of a dry season to which any rain that follows is attributed. Rain dancing has no effect on the weather though it may have therapeutic effects on the dancers".


The Potomac: What do we mean?
The Potomac has strong regional and national identity with residents and visitors. My remarks will refer to the idea of a "Potomac Region" which some of you will interpret to mean a watershed or a river basin. Some will interpret it as a series of landscapes. Some of you will interpret it to mean a valley. You are all correct--Meining again, right? Most of all this idea of the Potomac is that there is a region with recognized qualities that has been claimed by its residents who are working to keep it special.

How is the Potomac Doing?

Managing the environmental quality of the landscapes of the Potomac Region is complicated work. In order for us to manage, and achieve, environmental quality we must understand the political, cultural and economic context of the Potomac. We must incorporate the interaction of living and man-made things, the impacts of man, and the socio-economic and cultural influences that man contributes.

As we look at the Potomac Region, and its future, we need to ask ourselves four questions.

1. What is the current situation?

What alternatives are possible?

What can cities and other government agencies and
private sector organizations do to protect, manage and use parks, open space, recreation areas and sustainable practices?

4. Most importantly, what are we, as individuals, prepared to do about the current situation?

What is the current situation?

Many governments and private sector organizations report on the condition of the Potomac Region. Four noteworthy reports, or "scenes of the same view", on the state of the Potomac are highlighted.

First, let's look at an ecosystem management perspective--since the Potomac Region is nested in the larger Chesapeake Bay region. In 1983 "Choices for the Chesapeake: An Action Agenda" was published to describe a summary of a Chesapeake Bay Conference held in Fairfax, VA. The conference marked the beginning of a coordinated political effort to correct problems identified in government studies. The report recognized the following problems in the Potomac Region.
Increase in the number and diversity of oxygen robbing algae blooms
Decline in the abundance and diversity of submerged aquatic vegetation
Increasing levels of nutrients
Decrease in landings of Shad and Rockfish
High levels of metal contamination in the water and sediments

Second, let's look at a water quality, quantity and living resources perspective. In 1994 the Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB), and 25 government and private sector organizations at the request of Congress, prepared "The Potomac Visions Report to develop and implement a long-range strategy to protect and enhance the water quality and living resources of the Potomac River". The identified concerns included:

Acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mines on the North Branch
Runoff from farms carrying nutrients, sediments and pesticides
Increasing residential development and accumulated impacts of suburbanization
Toxic hot-spots and combined sewer and stormwater flows on the Anacostia River
Water quantity concerns related to droughts and withdrawals
Fishery declines in the lower Potomac
Population increases and a disturbing pattern of land, energy and water

Third, let's look at a business perspective. In 2001 "The Potomac Index", a joint project of the Potomac Conference, was prepared by a research team from the Brookings Greater Washington Research Program. The Index was designed to help citizens and leaders of the Washington metropolitan area understand how the region is changing and to measure the region's progress on key economic, social and environmental issues. Several of the concerns identified in the Index are:

The Greater Washington Region continues to face challenges in
reducing the ozone levels in the air we breathe and in improving the water quality of the Anacostia River.
The Region is consuming land at a faster rate than population
growth (1982 to 1997 the region's population grew by 30% and the land developed to accommodate that growth increased by 47%. Density decreased by 12%).
Metro-DC has one of the worst traffic congestion problems in the
country.

Fourth, let's look at a local and regional government perspective. In 2004 the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments looked at the issue of land consumption from another view. The results of the Metropolitan Washington Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project revealed that metropolitan Washington, DC will lose 28 to 43 acres of open space everyday from 1997 to 2020 to various types of development.


What are other threats to the future of the Potomac?

Seven threats of note, from my view of the Potomac, are:

Invasive species: On a fairly regular basis Potomacaians are now seeing and hearing news about aliens. Alien plant and animal species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. News accounts of zebra mussels, bullhead and blue catfish, carp, that old favorite hydrilla grass, and snakeheads.

The National Invasive Species Council, created following the 1999 Presidential Executive Order on Invasive Species, even has a website with information on Invasive Species--including the Invader of the Month--the Northern Snakehead is this month's selection.

Invasive species are a big, big problem. In 2000 the USDOI indicated that invasive species cost the Nation's economy approximately $123 billion annually and are second only to habitat destruction in threatening extinction of native species. At that time invasive plants and weeds were spreading on Federal lands at 4,600 acres per day.

In the Potomac snakeheads have gotten a lot of attention, Mari Lou Livingood of the Marina Operators Association of America has been organizing Snakehead Roundups to try to catch these fish before they reproduce.

Aside for the money, why is this a big deal? Steve Chaconas, a bass fishing guide from Stratford Landing said, "When you have an invasive species, it really throws the whole food chain out of balance".

America's disdain for the old: In the late-Laurance Rockefeller's office in Woodstock, VT there is a small picture with the inscription: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or go without." Unfortunately Mr. Rockefeller and many people that embrace these principles are becoming a minority view in America. Despite significant strides that American's have made in recycling, adaptive reuse, energy conservation and sustainable development we continue to discard the old for the new. Peggy Loar of the Smithsonian Institution said, "As forward-looking people, we Americans have fervently welcomed technology and invention into every aspect of our lives, disdaining the old."

Open space loss: We are losing more green space than we are
Protecting. “Green, More or Less” an article published in the Washington Post in 1996 indicates that 28 acres of open space is lost to development each and every day in the metro-Washington region. Although more than 311,036 acres of open space will be developed between 1990 and 2020 there is no major public and private green space protection initiative in the region. Normal metropolitan growth does not provide open space although land is abundant. Parks, open space and recreation areas are often the residual product of the development process. Despite a visionary heritage and a plethora of leaders there are no modern “big visions” for green infrastructure in the region.

“Tyranny of Small Solutions”: Most environmental quality efforts are site-specific in focus, opportunity-based and frequently duplicative or inefficient. All too often government and private sector programs are not landscape focused or integrated across organizational or jurisdictional boundaries. Although each independent effort is well-intentioned and creates some positive contribution to Potomac Region the overall net effect is one that is fragmented, dis-connected and does not often address priority needs. Single purpose approaches often result in a “tyranny of small solutions”--too often creating patchworks of unintegrated planning and case-by-case reactions.

Exclusion: By assuming that planning is a professional's business, we often leave people out of the process of designing a future for the Potomac Region. By leaving "grown-up" decisions to grown-ups, we are leaving our youth out of the process of planning their future. We also tend to exclude those recently arrived residents, and certain population groups not commonly thought to have legitimate interest in the future.

Bad Water: The water of the Potomac is being robbed by algae of its dissolved oxygen, which fish and crabs need to breathe. Many Potomacians are responsible for these "takings"--animal manure from farms, suburban lawn care products, air pollution from cars and power plants, and treated sewage all contribute. These all act like underwater fertilizers and stimulate algae blooms that choke the very light and air so essential to life for other ecosystem inhabitants.

Land, Growth & Stewardship Traditions: Traditional approaches to environmental quality in the Potomac have great momentum. It is human nature to apply "familiar" solutions to problems. Unfortunately past engineering, land use, growth management and stewardship approaches often are unable to meet environmental and economic goals simultaneously. Part of the problem is that the judicial and legislative systems are often "stuck" in accepted methodologies and not adaptable to current practices and new knowledge.


What alternatives are possible?

There are ten things you, or your organization, group, business or government agency can do to improve the environment for the future generations of the Potomac Region.

Use heritage as the bridge between nature, people and economies.

The idea of using the Potomac's heritage as an organizing principle for the future of the valley is not something new. We have the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail; Potomac Heritage Partnership; Potomac Heritage Trail Association, the recently sunset Potomac American Heritage River Initiative, and other organizations that embrace the term.

A heritage approach, regardless of its sophistication, sees a host of formerly unrelated activities as all part of a larger integrated whole. It's not something technical in itself, but rather it is a way of looking at the world and ourselves.

What is heritage?
Something transmitted or acquired from a predecessor.
Our collective features, traditions, and culture signifying/ illustrating the evolution of human settlement and resource use.
It's about "places" and "people".

It is a unifying theme! It reveals:
Who we are, were and will be.
Where and how we got here.
Why we are who we are.
What makes us unique?
Our identity.
What brings us together and what divides us apart.

The heritage of the Potomac Region is likely to be a term that more people will relate and respond to because everyone has a heritage--and everyone knows what the term means.


Build an integrated Geographic Information System database.

The residents and leaders of the Potomac are blessed with a vast array of information about the region, its people and living resources. Unfortunately there is no coherent and comprehensive summary of data about the Potomac.

As a part of President Johnson's Potomac effort in the 1960's Professor Ian McHarg and a team of graduate students was asked to inventory and assess the physical, biological and cultural elements of the landscape. McHarg's effort was the first ecological study done in the US and it illustrates the value in developing a coherent database.

McHarg's belief was that in order to understand a region, watershed or
site, one must understand the place, its inhabitants and all the areas
physical, biological and cultural history. He helped us to understand
how people use their lands and waters and how that understanding can
help us, help them, to make sound land use decisions in the future.
More than an environmental perspective, his model for planning and
design included the ecology of people as well as other living
organisms.

The information system would be used to increase the appreciation of the Potomac region as a central element of nature, heritage and commerce to demonstrate its relevance in education and public policies and to inspire fresh approaches to private and public land study and management. The information could be used to explore the physical and human elements of the Potomac which give the region its distinctive character emphasizing the human and natural elements such as settlements, forests, fields, buildings, archeology, history, monuments, canals, rivers, streams and wetlands.

Modern technologies employing all kinds of multi-media are now available to bring to life formerly flat and technical-looking maps and charts. Using these new techniques, we can simulate outcomes of potential decisions, and by accounting for myriad relationships, experience the outcomes of a virtual future. We can have the opportunity to correct a poor decision before we make it in a well designed system – or, to the contrary, move forward with new confidence in a new approach because we can see the direct and indirect benefits of it.

Identify What Success Looks Like and Measure Progress

Part of our vision of the future is imbedded in the question what does success look like individually and collectively? Ways to help clarify what we hope to achieve include:

a. Agree on and establish locally relevant and people-friendly indicators for the Potomac Region to describe and measure environmental quality gains and loses.

The Chesapeake Bay Program has a system of indicators that are used to monitor the progress of the Bay protection and restoration effort. The Bay indicators could be used as a model for Potomac landscapes.
Former MD State Senator Bernie Fowler has lead leaders to the Patuxent River since 1988 in an effort to bring attention to water quality. He and others wade into the river, wearing white-sneakers, until the water until they lose site of their sneakers--or the water gets chest high. This "Sneaker Index" raises awareness and measures progress.

b. Put a face on Potomac landscape loses and problems!

Research complied by the Washington Post, GIS expert Margaret Maizel, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments reveals that we lose somewhere between 28-43 acres of green space per day in the metropolitan Washington, DC region and this trend will continue at least until 2020.

Does anyone care? Yes, no, maybe? There is rarely a public outcry over this trend yet almost everyone I talk to values open space and its qualities. Until there is a connection between loses and gains and people monitoring numerical trend information may be viewed as irrelevant. They are someone else's problem, somewhere else. We need to know what is happening "close to home" and then how it relates to what's happening somewhere else.

Open space loses, and other indicators of the lack of progress to achieve environmental quality, need to be converted from obtuse statistics to more personal-values. Loses need to be documented and publicized using a "poster-child" approach that draws attention to the losses and encourages action to prevent further loss of green space.
"Notes on the State of Virginia" by Thomas Jefferson prepared in 1781-2, provided valuable "commentary on the resources and institutions…" Potomacians could hold a "State of the Potomac" forum every year, or two, to let people know how the Potomac is doing. The forum could be supplemented by a Jeffersonian-type "State of the Potomac Region" report.

Showcase and demonstrate on-the-ground success.

Presenting problems without solutions creates frustration and confusion. Many leaders have interest in learning more about conservation and protection approaches being used in the Potomac valley. Close-to-home success stories are a way to demonstrate the benefits of protecting and improving the Potomac and highlight the implementation process.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, ICPRB, the EPA
Chesapeake Bay Program, and others, have published various examples of existing "Best Practices" that are being used by local communities, governments and businesses as models to help protect and prosper.

Eat the view!

Our decisions as consumers can have a big influence on the way the Potomac Region is protected and managed, because the character of the landscape and the quality of the environment are directly linked to the way the land is used to produce food and other goods. Products processed and marketed locally can provide improve income and employment opportunities, help to strengthen the links between land managers and the local community, and reduce the unnecessary transportation of food and other goods.
Nearby the Local Food Project at Airlie, VA. works to link food buyers and producers in the same geographic region.
In the United Kingdom the Prime Minister charged the Countryside Agency--a statutory body that is empowered to conserve and enhance England's countryside and spread economic opportunity for the people who live there, to "assist consumers to understand the connections between the food they buy and the countryside they value, and to work with others to develop projects to achieve this aim and to improve the market for regional produce." The "Eat the View" initiative is the response to the challenge.
Recently the UK Countryside Agency held a forum "to explore opportunities for using the provision of environmental benefits as a marketing advantage for products from protected areas".


Get or Stay Involved in the Potomac

There is a wonderful tradition of volunteerism and philanthropy in the Potomac Region. Citizens, community and business leaders, corporations and governments regular donate their time, inkind services and money to support many public and private Potomac efforts. This type of civic engagement continues to be an important way to help protect and maintain the environmental quality of the Potomac.

The Mount Vernon Ladies Association, the oldest national historic
preservation organization in the country, is one of the best examples of how philanthropy and volunteerism can preserve, restore, and interpret Potomac heritage. Several examples of other ways to be involved in the Potomac include:

Participate in the Potomac River Cleanup Day
http://www.potomaccleanup.org/cleanupmainframe.html

Donate a tree to the Tree & Shrub Replacement Fund or the
Cherry Tree Fund
http://www.nps.gov/cherry/mpffund.htm

Participate in the Snakehead Roundup
http://www.roanoke.com/outdoors/billcochran/field/8082.html

Volunteer some of your time to help a Greater Washington
National Park
http://www.nps.gov/volunteer/

Participating in the political process.

Potomac Conservation Corps: Tom McFalls, a fundraiser, who was helping the Alice Ferguson Foundation and Friends of the Potomac, has advocated for a coalition of volunteer organizations--a type of "Potomac Conservation Corps", as a way to increase volunteerism, philanthropy and civic engagement.

Collaborate, Partner and Provide Quiet, Enabling Leadership

The future of the landscapes of the Potomac depends on
people. Knowing whom the key decision-makers, practitioners, community advocates, subject matters experts, public land managers, and civic associations leaders are can help people to protect and prosper. Two alternatives are:

a. Build a network of Potomac practitioners, at all levels of the government and the private sector, with depth and breadth.

A Potomac Valley directory could list the names, addresses, telephone, telefax and e-mail contact information numbers of the most important contacts in the region. The directory would be indexed by topical category and could be accessible in hard copy and on a website through a download format.
The Chesapeake Bay Consortium is an example of where this approach
was used with positive results. In 1978 the Consortium was formed. This federation of environmental and scientific study groups compiled a directory of organizations manifesting interest in the Chesapeake Bay. The initial work of the Consortium resulted in a "Who's Who Directory" for local, state and federal government agencies and private organizations.


b. Create a Potomac-based, public-private "Potomac Region Alliance".

The Potomac region doesn't lack government agencies or private groups with an interest or a responsibility for the region. Hundreds of organizations and agencies are involved in making decisions that affect the Potomac landscapes. Unfortunately no one group or government speaks for the landscapes of the Potomac or all the Potomac interests.

A "Potomac Region Alliance" should be formed to link the leaders of groups and agencies who share responsibility for the Potomac Region. This action is not to create another organization or agency but rather a federation of groups and governments to meet periodically, share information and take appropriate action when it is in the interests of the members.

The San Francisco Bay communities in California created a Greenbelt
Alliance "to make the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area a better place to live by protecting the region's greenbelt and improving the livability of its cities and towns". Since 1958 they have worked in partnership with diverse coalitions on public policy development, planning, fundraising, advocacy and education.


8. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!

As the Potomac Region changes communication is one of the keys to the future. Two ways to improve communication are:

a. Establish a Voice to Speak for the Potomac

Noted landscape writer Charles E. Little has said, "Behind every successful conservation project is a writer. Planners do good technical plans but they aren't very good at communicating their ideas to
the public. Government agencies, such as the National Park
Service (NPS) should hire writers and other artists to
help them add vision to and public understanding of rivers and trails".

Who speaks for the Potomac? Who speaks for the history,
people and living resources of the Potomac? In the past the Potomac has attracted number of great writers such as Fritz Guthiem, Gilbert Gude, and Frank Graham, Jr. However, while recognizing Joel Achenbach's excellent recent book "The Grand Idea: George Washington's Potomac and the Race to the West", no one author has established himself or herself as a voice for the Potomac valley.

Area writers---as well as artists, painters, storytellers, and performing artists could be encouraged to use their skills in
"evocative communication" to help local leaders and
government staff to help people describe the values of
specific places and encourage people to work to protect
them.

The Washington Post and Times, or other periodicals, could have a regular Potomac Region feature column similar to Tom Horton's column on the Chesapeake Bay in the Baltimore Sun.

b. Access the Potomac Valley through the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail:

The 2001 Potomac Index reported that 81% of their respondents said, "they feel part of the Greater Washington Region". This number increased from 72% in 2000.

As we look to the future and decide who we will be it is important that we tell our story but also listen to the special knowledge that each person brings. If we are serious about the planning for the future of the Potomac then we need to embrace the words of ecological designer Stuart Cowan, who said, "Listen to every voice in the design process. No one is a participant only or a designer only: Everyone is a participant designer".

One way to share information about the past, present and future of the valley is the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail (Potomac Trail). The Potomac Trail is five trails linked within a 425-mile trail corridor from Point Lookout, MD to Pittsburgh, PA.

The Trail captures the promise of the Potomac. Burt Kummerow, in "A Potomac Trail for All Of Us", wrote, "No one sang the song of the Potomac more than George Washington. For him, the river was the 'greater part.' It was his homesite, highway, fishery, power source and pleasure ground. It was his route west to the future of America. His singular vision and and leadership made it the "nation's River".

The Potomac Trail is intended "to connect people with places, providing opportunities to explore connections and contrasts among landscapes, history and communities." The corridor expresses a recreation and conservation version of George Washington's vision of a "great avenue into the Western Country". The trail corridor offers Potomacians the opportunity to tell their story--past, present and future, to residents and visitors. The trail provides an opportunity to strengthen our regional identity and provide a different way to look at the world and ourselves.

The Potomac Trail partners could work together, through existing and new programs, to provide interpreters, interpretive services and events at strategic locations as a way to share and learn the history of the Potomac valley.

c. Build an open and non-judgmental platform to discuss the existing quality and condition of the landscapes of the Potomac and alternatives for protection and prosperity.

Regular and open forums are an important way for community leaders, residents, and experts to come together to discuss issues, concerns, opportunities and solutions. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has conducted 20 forums on parks, open space and recreation areas over the last two years. Nearly 1,000 community, government and private sector leaders participated in a series of green infrastructure forums over the last two years. Participants indicated that the forums had value and were a non-decision-making platform for discussing common interests and innovative solutions to regional problems and opportunities. The forums proved to be a way to showcase local experts and those from afar.

In 1944 the Maryland Conservation Forum was recognized by John
Wennerstein in "The Chesapeake: An Environmental Biography", along with the 1940 creation of the Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin, as a significant contribution to the Chesapeake Bay protection and restoration effort. These forums are noted as "moving conservation thinking in government beyond economic values of Chesapeake Bay fisheries'.


Practice Stewardship at Home, in the Workplace and Regionally

Earlier I outlined four questions, two of which had to do with what could and would we do to protect the environment of the Potomac landscapes. Each of us can do our own part to protect the quality of the Potomac Region. We can:
plant native trees, shrubs and herbaceous material in our yards to help control the aliens and purify the air.
make sure that we don't use any ground surface that is harder than absolutely necessary for its function (Richard Haag's Theory of Softness) to help ameliorate the climate and recharge groundwater supplies.
manage runoff, stormwater and septic on your own property or site to help protect and restore water quality.

However, if the Potomac Region is more than a collection of unrelated sites and activities, than it makes sense to look at our communities, watersheds and component landscapes as a region and manage the essential values and functions as a system. Good site planning alone won't protect the quality of the Potomac Region.

In his book "The Potomac" Fritz Guthiem wrote about the end of the third quarter of the eighteenth century and said,

"After nearly one hundred and fifty years of growth and change, the valley had filled up, an equilibrium had been achieved. It was a practical society these Potomac people had created."

Although there may have been a stable, balanced or unchanging system at that time, today the Potomac valley continues to change. As the region changes residents are expressing increasing concern about the need to balance interest in building housing, roads and other development to accommodate population growth with the desire to protect forest, farmlands and pastures and preserve the existing character of communities.

In 1970 Eugene Odum, one of the most influential figures in the history of ecology, looked at this concept of equilibrium. Odum attempted to determine the total environmental requirements for an individual as a basis for estimating the optimum population density for man. Using the State of Georgia as an input-output model for estimating the per capital acreage requirements, Dr. Odum found that the minimum per capita acreage requirements, per person, for a quality environment are:

--1.5 acres of food producing land (crops, grazing and orchard land, etc.)
--1.0 fiber producing land (paper, lumber, cotton, etc.)
--2.0 acres of natural use areas (watersheds, airsheds, tertiary treatment of wastes, recreation and park areas, etc.)
--0.5 acres of urban-industrial systems (highways, living, urban and industrial space, etc.)

Planning that emphasizes meeting local food, water and fiber needs using close-to-home resources supports local economies, saves energy, and supports environmental quality.

The communities, state and Commonwealth jurisdictions, regional agencies and private organizations could refine and apply Odium's formula for environmental quality to begin to assess how the region is doing and whether we are achieving equilibrium between protection and prosperity.

Celebrate the Potomac.

Even good conferences--such as this one, forums, meetings, reports and resolutions don't mean anything unless they lead to actions that make a difference. Creating opportunities to celebrate the many varied values of the Potomac Region is essential to the environmental quality movement. It creates a connection with the places that need protection and management and the people that care about them.
For example, events such as the Potomac Conservancy's "Growing Native: Get Nuts for Clean Water" effort, the Committee of 100's special "Tour of the Fort Circle Parks-Civil War Defenses of Washington" and Washington Park's and People's "Washington Ridge Crossing" walk are but a few of the ways that people are taking action, sharing success and celebrating the values the landscapes of the Potomac.


Summary

Potomacians have made impressive efforts to protect and restore the Potomac. However, it is important to note that we took the Potomac from the state of equilibrium that Guthiem spoke of, to a reputation as a "national disgrace", and back again. So our work is never done because this is a dynamic and changing natural, cultural and economic place and values and commitments change.

So let us be clear today. We know what the conditions and trends are in the Potomac Region.

The alternatives to improve environmental quality--for landowners, private groups, businesses and governments,are well known.

We have the tools to achieve environmental protection and improvement and we know how these tools must be applied to be successful.

We know how the tools have to be applied to fit the our social and political context. Interestingly, more than 35 years ago the strategy for how action should be taken was clear.

"A new generation of social inventions is vital to the people of the Potomac basin and to the people of the nation. Some inventions will be large-scale, requiring inter-basin agreements or Federal laws. Many, however, will be small-scale and neighborly; they will be informal and voluntary agreements growing out of necessities of everyday life. The two must compliment each other. Public laws and government agencies must form a framework within which private actions can flourish and bring a better life and environment to the Potomac region and its people". 1967 The Potomac Planning Task Force, contributed to the study "The Potomac".

What is unknown about the future of the Potomac Region is what we, as individuals, organizations and governments, are prepared to do to improve the environmental quality for future generations. The vision continues and we need only to commit to it.

The choice and the future is ours.

May you have continued success in your work in the Potomac Region.

________________________________________________________________

J. Glenn Eugster is Assistant Regional Director
for Partnerships, at the National Park Service, National Capital Region in Washington, D.C. He has worked for 28 years locally, regionally,
nationally, and internationally, with NPS and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, helping communities and park managers regenerate
economies and ecosystems. His experience includes an emphasis
on watershed stewardship, wetlands protection, heritage conservation,
sustainable development, and fundraising. He was educated in horticulture, landscape architecture and ecological planning at the Universities of New York, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

For Further Information: For information contact: Glenn Eugster at NPS, National Capital Region, 1100 Ohio Drive, SW, Room 350, Washington, DC 20242. By telephone call (202) 619-7492. By e-mail write: glenn_eugster@nps.gov