bond issues later voted for carrying them
out.

The cash available for both regular programs and special proposals from
year-to-year will vary according to the state of the economy, the number
and severity of other demands on government budgets, and their relative
apparent urgency. This imposes on planners not only an obligation to
make sure that what they propose has public value that fully justifies
its price, but also a need to gear immediate priorities and projects
realistically to the amount of money there is some hope of getting for
them. It is an unhappy fact that there is often less than no point in
presenting even fine proposals for legislative consideration at a
financially inappropriate point in history. Once defeated, whatever the
reason, they may forever languish in limbo.

At this particular point in history, this country has been for some time
involved in a tough, costly conflict in Southeast Asia which inexorably
absorbs much of the available Federal money. Americans are a rich
people, riding a wave of prosperity, and much is left over for other
things. But in this turbulent and questing era, they also have a good
many other urgent and expensive problems and projects on their hands
besides those dealing directly with natural resources and conservation.
The problems are familiar words on the front pages of newspapers and in
evening conversations: poverty, urban crisis, transportation, national
defense, public health, world hunger and unrest, space exploration,
schools, and the rest. All cost hugely. And, though individual
conservation proposals of clearly critical importance most often receive
fair and full consideration, one or two or more of these other realms
for action usually loom larger to the eye of the public and the Congress
than do environmental programs in general. Therefore they get first shot
at the funds available for spending year by year.

Most people have a bias in favor of their own chosen field of interest.
To some, the right use of the natural earthly framework of things
matters supremely. They tend toward a conviction that sooner or later it
will stand very high on any list of priorities for spending, as the
magnitude of what is being lost and diminished is borne in on the
consciousness of the general public. Yet, as of now, it faces heavy
competition for limited funds, and this is another reality for
consideration, as solid for the moment as the Basin's physical problems,
as solid