in's remaining scenic and natural and historic wealth, nearly
all of it associated to some degree with a part of the river system,
much has stayed intact or has come back to good condition, accidentally
or by someone's forethought. Well over a million acres are in public
ownership of some kind, about a fifth of this being dedicated primarily
to scenic preservation and public enjoyment as parks and recreation
areas. These range from the great recently authorized Spruce Knob-Seneca
Rocks National Recreation Area in the Basin's western highlands and the
spectacular narrow Shenandoah National Park along the Blue Ridge, to
local and county parks of smaller size and special function. In and
around metropolitan Washington, good sense and good will on the part of
many people in years past has resulted in a fine assortment of parks in
an area where they are most needed and used, though with urban expansion
more are needed all the time.

They are also harder to come by all the time. A recent and instructive
example of this growing difficulty in creating public areas occurred at
Mason Neck, a richly scenic and natural bootshaped peninsula projecting
into the estuary not far below Mount Vernon, where George Mason's old
home and a part of his estate are immaculately preserved by the National
Society of the Colonial Dames of America and the Commonwealth of
Virginia. The Neck has twelve miles of riverfront and 6500 acres of
undeveloped land only eighteen miles from the center of Washington, and
though the river here is part of the eutrophic upper estuary, often
thick with algae in summer, the place is a wildlife paradise, with
forests of mature and stately trees and a Great Marsh of around 1000
acres. Incredibly, bald eagles still roost and even nest there, a fact
which provided the initial spark for heavy public opposition to recent
proposals for residential development of the Neck.

[Illustration]

Supported by the Potomac Task Force whenever possible, the defenders of
the peninsula organized as the Conservation Committee for Mason Neck
and fought its cause almost inch by inch, with many setbacks and much
expense of time and energy and money, through referendum elections and
political hanky-panky and high levels of government. They won;
development was forestalled and the nearly certain prospect is for a
large composite public holding for park and wildlife refuge use, made up
of Federal, state, and regional acquisitions.

[Illus