[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 103 (Friday, July 12, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PROTECTING OUR NATIONAL TREASURES

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                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 12, 1996

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, Gaylord Nelson, a former U.S. Senator and the 
recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, recently wrote an 
eloquent Independence Day July Fourth guest column for the St. Paul 
Pioneer Press in support of our Nation's natural treasures. As Senator 
Nelson points out, our National Parks, National Forests and National 
Wilderness Areas are among our Nation's greatest blessings. We 
Americans must treasure these special places just as we treasure peace, 
freedom, and democracy.
  America's public lands constitute a historic, natural legacy that 
belongs to all Americans. We simply hold these lands in trust for 
future generations, and must manage them for the benefit of all. Our 
children and grandchildren deserve to enjoy the beauty and majesty of 
their rightful natural inheritance in the years to come.
  Today, there are some in Congress who see the control of our Nation's 
crown jewels as the province of solely parochial special interests who 
desire to define the use of our parks and wilderness areas to suit 
their personal convenience and preferences, and even for commercial 
purposes. Within my home State of Minnesota, some individuals are 
advocating extending authority to a management council--a new expensive 
cumbersome bureaucracy of local parochial special interests--for 
control of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness [BWCAW] and 
Voyageurs National Park. These proponents also want to enshrine 
extensive snowmobile use on the pristine Kabetogama Peninsula of 
Voyaguers National Park and to increase motorized vehicle use within a 
BWCAW, a national wilderness. Such proposals benefit only a select few 
at the expense of the 250 million Americans who share common ownership 
of these national treasures in Minnesota.
  I hope all my colleagues will take a few minutes to read Senator 
Nelson's insightful July Fourth essay on what it means to be an 
American and in defense of our National Parks and public lands. We have 
an obligation to protect these American crown jewels, not only our 
national legacy, but that of future generations.

            [From the St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 4, 1996]

      We Should Renew Our Pledge to Protect Our National Treasures

                          (By Gaylord Nelson)

       As you watch the fireworks on the Fourth of July, what is 
     it that makes you glad to be an American? The freedom to say 
     whatever you please? The economic opportunities? Peace? On 
     this Independence Day, all of those are worth celebrating.
       But one of our greatest blessings is usually taken for 
     granted. Every child born in this country instantly becomes a 
     large landowner. He or she holds title to 623 million acres--
     nearly a million square miles. This acreage includes some of 
     the planet's most spectacular places: the Grand Canyon, 
     Yellowstone, Yosemite, and, closer to home, Voyageurs 
     National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. No other 
     country endows its citizens so richly.
       Most of us know about the national parks. But they account 
     for just 12 percent of the lands that all of us own jointly. 
     Three other systems of lands make up the other 88 percent and 
     are less well known. There are 155 national forests 
     (including the Chippewa and Superior), 508 national wildlife 
     refuges and 267 million acres of western heritage lands, 
     including ancient Pacific Northwest forests, the California 
     Desert and red rock canyonlands in Utah.
       These places offer world-class recreation opportunities and 
     receive 1.4 billion recreation visits a year. They contain 
     4,000 developed campgrounds and 160,000 miles of hiking and 
     equestrian trails. About half the game fish habitat in the 
     United States lies on the national lands, and 43 percent of 
     all big-game hunters use these lands for their activities.
       Our lands provide far more than fun and games, though. They 
     are like an enormous university, teaching youngsters on field 
     trips and all other visitors about the natural world and 
     about our history. The forests filter rainwater, which then 
     flows to our cities and towns. In the West, 96 percent of the 
     population depends on water from the national lands. Trees on 
     these lands also help clean the air and stabilize the 
     climate.
       You can even think of these million square miles as a 
     gigantic natural laboratory, where scientists study and 
     researchers discover medicines that treat diseases and make 
     us healthier. Without these places, many of our fish, plants 
     and animals would have no chance of surviving.
       These lands even play a vital economic role. Those 1.4 
     billion annual visitors create a lot of business for stores 
     and companies located near these lands. Late last year, when 
     gridlock in Congress led to the temporary shutdown of our 
     national parks, businesses lost a total of $14 million a day. 
     Other businesses, which have nothing to do with tourism, are 
     attracted to such areas because of their beauty and 
     peacefulness and thus create jobs in those communities. In 
     addition, the trees, minerals, and other commodities on these 
     lands are tuned into paper and other products.
       Ownership of all this land, including 3.48 million acres in 
     Minnesota, carries a duty. ``The nation behaves well,'' 
     President Theodore Roosevelt once said, ``if it treats the 
     natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the 
     next generation increased, and not impaired in value.''
       Unfortunately, various special interests are eager to 
     exploit these lands for maximum short-term financial gain, at 
     the expense of the lands' many other values. Congress is now 
     considering bills that would promote development of many of 
     these places or give them to the states. One example is 
     legislation to increase motorized activities and development 
     of Boundary waters and Voyageurs. Passage of these proposals 
     would harm the interests of all citizens, present and future.
       On this most American of holidays, we should commit 
     ourselves to honoring the vision of those who protected our 
     best places. In our national lands, we have inherited the 
     very essence of ``America the Beautiful,'' and we must make 
     sure our grandchildren do, too.

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