n the 1960s, our country began to realize that our rivers were being dammed, dredged, diked, diverted and degraded at an alarming rate.  To lend balance for the protection of some of this nation's premier rivers, Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968, and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was then created.

• . . . the time has also come to identify and preserve free-flowing stretches of our great rivers before growth and development make the beauty of the unspoiled waterway a memory.

President Lyndon Johnson's Message on Natural Beauty

t first it was thought that designation as a wild and scenic river would require federal ownership of the rivers and the rivers' environs to insure adequate long term preservation.  Many rivers in wilderness locations and national parks were qualified and designated into the system with direct management by the Department of the Interior.  Most of these were western rivers, but some in the east, like the Upper Delaware River, also became part of the Wild & Scenic Rivers System.

• The affluent society has built well in terms of economic progress, but has neglected the protection of the very water we drink as well as the values of fish and wildlife, scenic, and outdoor recreation resources. Although often measureless in commercial terms, these values must be preserved by a program that will guarantee America some semblance of her great heritage of beautiful rivers.

Senator Frank Church from Idaho

y the late 1970s, there was a growing recognition that direct federal ownership and management would limit the number of rivers that could possibly be designated for permanent protection, and that there were many more rivers that possessed the "outstandingly remarkable values" required by the program and would qualify for designation in more developed areas of the country.   The scope of the Wild & Scenic Rivers System was then broadened to allow the designation of rivers and riparian lands that were publicly and private owned, with a Partnership approach to river management and conservation utilizing cooperative agreements between the National Park Service and local agencies and organizations.

• Boundaries don't protect rivers, people do.

Brad Arrowsmith, landowner along the Niobrara National Scenic River, Nebraska   

n the mid 1980's, local citizens, environmental organizations, and public officials in twelve municipalities in four counties in New Jersey requested a study of the Great Egg Harbor River for potential designation.  In 1982 the Great Egg Harbor River was listed in the National Park Service's Nationwide Rivers Inventory as meeting the minimum criteria for future study, and came under study by the National Park Service as the first Partnership River to be included in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1986.

• . . . I am beginning to understand that the stream the scientists are studying is not just a little creek. It's a river of energy that moves across regions in great geographic cycles. Here, life and death are only different points on a continuum. The stream flows in a circle through time and space, turning death into life across coastal ecosystems, as it has for more than a million years. But such streams no longer flow in the places where most of us live.

Kathleen Dean Moore and Jonathan W. Moore,
The Gift of Salmon, Discover Magazine, May 2003

otivated by development pressure, changed patterns of recreational use, threats to wildlife and historic sites, the prospects of substantial water withdrawals into public water supply systems, and water quality degradation, a public consensus was achieved to support the designation of the Great Egg Harbor River into the Wild & Scenic Rivers System.  In 1992, Congress passed Public Law 102-536, which designated segments of the Great Egg Harbor River and its tributaries as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

• Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children's lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land.

Luna Leopold, Hydrologist

s a cooperatively managed unit in the National Park System, the National Park Service selected the Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association (GEHWA) as the host organization to assist with the implementation of the Great Egg Harbor National Scenic and Recreational River Comprehensive Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, which was finalized in May of 2000.  With over 10 years of dedicated partnership commitment to the planning process and working closely with twelve local municipalities, state, county, federal, and local organizations, GEHWA and the National Park Service will continue this effort to assure the long term protection of the special qualities of the Great Egg Harbor River.

• We let a river shower its banks with a spirit that invades the people living there, and we protect that river, knowing that without its blessings the people have no source of soul.

Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life