be accelerated toward
certain minimum goals;

(6) That Soil Conservation Service and related Forest Service
programs for erosion control, water management and development, and
recreation benefits be accelerated;

(7) That the authorized boundaries of the George Washington
National Forest be extended to provide public access to and
protection of the two forks of the Shenandoah above their
confluence;

(8) That Mason Neck on the upper estuary be preserved; and

(9) That the George Washington Memorial Parkway be extended from
Mount Vernon to Yorktown as the beginning of a system of scenic
roads and parkways in and around the Basin.

One of the recommendations has had to be deferred, though the need
implicit in it remains acute--that the Cacapon and the West Virginia
Shenandoah be included in the Wild Rivers Bill then pending before
Congress. It had been thought that this Bill might be used to protect
the Basin's threatened main tributary rivers, beginning with these two
in West Virginia, but afterward doubt arose that the standards set up
for Wild Rivers--the primary point of reference being Western streams
flowing through sparsely peopled, often publicly owned country--would
make sense or be feasible in a settled region.

Mason Neck has been preserved by great effort on the part of
individuals, organizations, and different levels of government. More
remains to be done in the way of consolidation of what is there and its
adaptation to intended purposes, but the hardest part of the job is
accomplished; a critically endangered asset has been protected. Funds
have been voted by Congress for the acquisition of the Bloomington
reservoir site in accordance with the Interim recommendation. Water
quality improvement in the Basin is on the point of being significantly
accelerated toward high goals, as the new State standards are reviewed
and approved and start getting enforcement, though for specific trouble
spots and categories of pollution special Federal or other action is
going to be needed and is the subject of new recommendations
accompanying this final report.

The rest of the _Interim Report_ measures require Congressional action,
which none has yet received. In some cases this is because technically
detailed authorizing legislation has taken time to prepare, in others
because budgetary or policy realities have brought delay or
reconsideration, and in sti