[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 24, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
       INTRODUCTION OF NATIONAL AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION ACT

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                            HON. DAN HAMBURG

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 24, 1994

  Mr. HAMBURG. Mr. Speaker, today, I am introducing the National 
Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Act of 1994 which creates a new vision 
for sustainable stewardship of aquatic ecosystems in our country. This 
bill will encourage and fund voluntary grassroots efforts to restore 
river, wetland and estuarine ecosystems based on a long-term National 
strategy. The President has called for re-alignment of Federal land 
management based on watershed boundaries, but his initiative extends 
only to Federal lands. The Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Act's focus on 
non-federal lands will complement this Federal land policy.
  The Mattole Restoration Council, in Humboldt County on California's 
northcoast, embodies this vision. In 1979 a small group of residents 
and landowners joined together to rebuild declining native salmon 
populations in their river. Inevitably, they soon discovered that 
restoring the salmon population meant rebuilding the ecosystem which 
gives it life. Today, the Mattole Restoration Council encompasses 13 
member groups. They are working to restore and maintain a self-
sustaining Mattole River ecosystem which will nourish and support a 
sustainable economy based on forestry, fishing, ranching, small 
business, and recreation.
  Freeman House, a founder of the Mattole Restoration Council, speaks 
eloquently of the wisdom and effectiveness of locally-based watershed 
management:

       One pass through with a government crew isn't going to do 
     the job. The residents will remain in place after the 
     government has come and gone. If the restoration program has 
     been structured so that problems are defined and decisions 
     made by inhabitants with the counsel of technicians, and if 
     much of the work has been performed by local people, 
     especially young people, then a population will remain whose 
     identity has been extended to include their habitat. They 
     will have the skills to maintain equilibrium with the changes 
     inherent in all natural succession. * * * And they will begin 
     to invent the styles of resource development appropriate to 
     the long-range survival of their places and thus of 
     themselves.

  Community-based restoration efforts are growing across the country. 
From the Merrimack River in New England down the coast to the Kissimmee 
river in Florida, across to the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in the 
heart of our country, west to numerous coastal rivers and streams on 
the Pacific coast, local residents are beginning to identify the health 
of their surrounding water systems with their own well-being ans 
survival.
  In the last 100 years, the Federal Government has invested over $200 
billion to develop dams, irrigation, flood control, and navigation 
projects. Although these projects have had many beneficial results for 
our society, they have also caused severe damage to aquatic 
ecosystems--rivers, lakes, streams, estuaries and the surrounding land, 
plants and wildlife. Only 2 percent of the rivers in our Nation are 
considered healthy. The sport fishery in three quarters of our streams 
has deteriorated to low quality. More aquatic organisms than any other 
group are potential candidates for listing under the Endangered Species 
Act.
  We are now entering a new era, an era of awareness that we must also 
invest in restoration of our watershed and aquatic habitat. The 
National Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Act of 1994 will build a future 
in which our children and grandchildren can enjoy the thriving 
fisheries and clean drinkable water we have taken for granted for so 
long.

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