The Environment and a Two-Billion Dollar Property

Land management must consider the environment in depth, in cooperation with the public, to ensure maximum benefit to man and nature. Surface and subsurface ownership must be known. Ownership maps, supplemented with subject overlays or companion maps, or both, are basic tools. The surveyor and the photogrammetrist must supply the base maps for the subject specialists. Climate, flora, fauna, water, topography, soils, geology, land use and local economy must be considered. Each of these items may not receive the same degree of consideration, ultimately. But only when all data have been assembled and analyzed can long and short range plans be developed. Plans should not be considered final, much less implemented, until the public has been involved in their review, and participated in the harmonization of differences.