Nineteen sixty-five, as indeed do most years nowadays, brought many new developments in the field of natural resources. Important legislation was enacted; programs were inaugurated or expanded under existing laws; the march of technology continued; and economic events at home and abroad affected patterns of production, use, and trade.
A number of the year's events seem, in the light of present evidence, to be of more than passing significance. A few of these are discussed briefly here for their long-range implications. They do not add up to a select summary of the year, but, rather, represent sections of an important item or two in each of RFF's areas of study.
Dividing lines between the traditional resource categories became more blurred than ever; one need look farther than this issue of Resources to note the overlapping among land, water, outdoor recreation, quality of the environment, and (in one instance) mining. Several items might quite logically have been put in different pigeonholes.
A version of this article appeared in print in the January 1966 issue of Resources magazine.
