own which the clean South Branch
runs between steep mountains dotted with caves and flavored with the
quiet simplicity of the life that isolated hill folk lived there up into
modern times. It is a section much appreciated by whitewater canoeists
and hikers and horsemen and others from that region and elsewhere, who
care about rugged and unspoiled places. Despite its remoteness, the
proposal that it be inundated aroused more vigorously hostile comment
among conservationists and nature lovers in general than perhaps any
other item in the Army program except Seneca. The State of West Virginia
declared itself opposed to the project, and to date has maintained that
position.

Again like Seneca, the Royal Glen site does have certain unique
advantages for use as a reservoir. But, as at Seneca also, its
functional virtues do not appear to be nearly so unique as those of the
scenery and natural values whose obliteration would be a heavy part of
the reservoir's price. In 1965, the immense scenic value of a large part
of the country it would wipe out was recognized by its inclusion in the
big Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. It is strongly to
be hoped that that recognition is never withdrawn.

The issue of scenic destruction at both Royal Glen and Seneca tends to
obscure another set of even more basically relevant considerations
having to do with the whole question of flood plain occupancy and use,
the extent to which those who benefit from it should share the cost of
such protection as may be necessary, and possible ways of reversing a
present trend toward inexorably larger national flood damages each year
despite ever larger and more expensive structural protective measures at
public expense.

[Illustration: THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE]

It is a complex subject that can only be summarized here. What it
amounts to is that America has strayed too far from the ancient hard-won
wisdom of treating flood plains with respect. It has been lulled by the
achievements of engineering, encouraged by a general absence of
inadequacy of State and local planning that takes such matters into
account, and conditioned to a set of Federal laws and policies
piece-built over a long period of time, with consequent inequities,
imbalances, and loopholes that tend to emphasize structural protection
at Federal expense for indiscriminate flood plain development. The
result has been a neglect of the possibilities of flood plain
management, wh