0 acres out of
10,000--is privately owned. Along most of the 120 miles where the canal
property touches the Potomac it is much too narrow to permit heavy use,
so that public enjoyment of the river except at occasional spots is
limited to hikers, cyclists, and boatmen. Maryland's Fort Frederick
State Park, which joins the canal property and forms a much-frequented
node of public use, is the only such park on any of the main rivers of
the upper Basin.

Federal and state forests, extensive though they are, are mainly
confined to the ridges, as is the Shenandoah National Park. On the two
forks of the Shenandoah and its main stem below their junction, very
little public land exists despite the big segment of National Forest in
the Massanutten range between the forks, and on the Cacapon there is
hardly any. Authorized additions to the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks
National Recreation Area will bring parts of the fine, clean mountain
forks of the South Branch into public ownership and use, but the main
stem of that river farther down is shut off.

Fee-entrance places and State or local fishing access points are sparse,
so that for the most part the Basin's main flowing streams remain a
closed book for people who lack the time, youth, equipment, or
inclination to come at them by canoeing or some other more or less
arduous means. And, as was noted earlier, the shores of most of them
urgently need some sort of reasonable protection against vacation
clutter, so that a certain amount of public ownership or control would
help save the rivers as well as provide recreation.

Imbalances in the kinds of recreation available in various parts of the
Basin are another problem, sometimes rooted in the nature of things,
sometimes remediable. The outstanding one is the shortage in the upper
Basin of what is called "flat water"--lakes and reservoirs suited for
mass recreation of kinds for which a really major demand exists and is
growing: swimming and motorboating and water-skiing, besides fishing of
the type possible only in such water.

It has been said that recreation is potentially Appalachia's most
profitable industry. If so, Potomac Appalachia badly needs more such
water to fill out the resource and to attract the many people who are
interested mainly in flat-water activities. Middle sections of the Basin
want and can use it as well. A clear indication of the demand, as well
as an additional good reason for trying to meet it, is seen on w