[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 130 (Tuesday, October 2, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H6093-H6095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              VIRGIN RIVER DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT PRESERVE ACT

  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 2385) to convey certain property to the City of St. George, 
Utah, in order to provide for the protection and preservation of 
certain rare paleontological resources on that property, and for other 
purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 2385

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Virgin River Dinosaur 
     Footprint Preserve Act''.

     SEC. 2. VIRGIN RIVER DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT PRESERVE.

       (a) Authorization for Grant To Purchase Footprint 
     Preserve.--As soon as is practicable after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, if the City agrees to the conditions 
     set forth in subsection (b), the Secretary of the Interior 
     may award to the City a grant equal to the lesser of $500,000 
     or the fair market value of up to 10 acres of land (and all 
     related facilities and other appurtenances thereon) generally 
     depicted on the map entitled ``Proposed Virgin River Dinosaur 
     Footprint Preserve'', numbered 09/06/2001-A, for purchase of 
     that property.
       (b) Conditions of Grant.--The grant under subsection (a) 
     shall be made only after the City agrees to the following 
     conditions:
       (1) Use of land.--The City shall use the Virgin River 
     Dinosaur Footprint Preserve in a manner that accomplishes the 
     following:
       (A) Preserves and protects the paleontological resources 
     located within the exterior boundaries of the Virgin River 
     Dinosaur Footprint Preserve.
       (B) Provides opportunities for scientific research in a 
     manner compatible with subparagraph (A).
       (C) Provides the public with opportunities for educational 
     activities in a manner compatible with subparagraph (A).
       (2) Reverter.--If at any time after the City acquires the 
     Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve, the Secretary 
     determines that the City is not substantially in compliance 
     with the conditions described in paragraph (1), all right, 
     title, and interest in and to the Virgin River Dinosaur 
     Footprint Preserve shall immediately revert to the United 
     States, with no further consideration on the part of the 
     United States, and such property shall then be under the 
     administrative jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior.
       (3) Conditions to be contained in deed.--If the City 
     attempts to transfer title to the Virgin River Dinosaur 
     Footprint Preserve (in whole or in part), the conditions set 
     forth in this subsection shall transfer with such title and 
     shall be enforceable against any subsequent owner of the 
     Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve (in whole or in 
     part).
       (c) Cooperative Agreement and Assistance.--
       (1) Cooperative agreement.--The Secretary shall enter into 
     a cooperative agreement with the City for the management of 
     the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve by the City.
       (2) Assistance.--The Secretary may provide to the City--
       (A) financial assistance, if the Secretary determines that 
     such assistance is necessary for protection of the 
     paleontological resources located within the exterior 
     boundaries of the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve; 
     and
       (B) technical assistance to assist the City in complying 
     with subparagraphs (A) through (C) of subsection (b)(1).
       (3) Additional grants.--
       (A) In general.--In addition to funds made available under 
     subsection (a) and paragraph (2) of this subsection, the 
     Secretary may provide grants to the City to carry out its 
     duties under the cooperative agreement entered into under 
     paragraph (1).
       (B) Limitation on amount; required non-federal match.--
     Grants under subparagraph (A) shall not exceed $500,000 and 
     shall be provided only to the extent that the City matches 
     the amount of such grants with non-Federal contributions 
     (including in-kind contributions).
       (d) Map on File.--The map shall be on file and available 
     for public inspection in the appropriate offices of the 
     Department of the Interior.
       (e) Definitions.--For the purposes of this section, the 
     following definitions apply:
       (1) City.--The term ``City'' means the city of St. George, 
     Utah.
       (2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
     of the Interior.
       (3) Virgin river dinosaur footprint preserve.--The term 
     ``Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve'' means the 
     property (and all facilities and other appurtenances thereon) 
     described in subsection (a).

                              {time}  1630

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walden of Oregon). Pursuant to the rule, 
the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen) and the gentlewoman from the 
Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen).
  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, a very unique thing happened a little over a year ago in 
St.

[[Page H6094]]

George, Utah. That is in Washington County. There was a retired 
ophthalmologist by the name of Dr. Sheldon Johnson. He had some 
property to the east of St. George and wanted to level it. So he had a 
backhoe and all the necessary things, a front loader. He was working 
there, and he had gone down about 10 feet and all of the sudden he came 
to some very large flat rocks. He turned one over and lo and behold he 
found dinosaur prints like the one sitting right here.
  This dinosaur print is one of the most unique ones that I think has 
ever been found in America. He was a little nervous about it so he kept 
turning others over. Before long there was actually dozens of dinosaur 
prints. There was not only prints like this one, but there was tail 
drags and the whole thing. He said, What have I found here? I found 
something quite amazing.
  Paleontologists started coming from all around the world. In fact, 
over 50 countries have been here. They looked at these things and said, 
They have to be preserved. Dr. Johnson is sitting there, not knowing 
what to do with these things. He goes to the State and the State people 
say, That is wonderful. All the universities say, This is a wonderful 
thing to see. People come from France and say, This has to be 
preserved. But no one figures out how to do it because this is the up 
side of the print and not the down side. When it is sitting there, 
rain, wind other things start to erode it.
  Dr. Johnson is sitting there with his wife. He has got literally 
thousands of people, over 150,000 people from 54 countries, standing 
there wanting to see this fabulous find of Dr. Johnson. How does he do 
it? The city said, Dr. Johnson, we would like to help you. The county 
says the same thing. The State says the same thing. So we took a look 
at it and said, If this is really the find of the century regarding 
this thing, something ought to be done.
  As you know, our current President probably is not as inclined to 
make monuments as our past President, who was very good at making 
monuments. He could make 10 a day without any trouble whatsoever. But 
this President was not inclined to do it. He decided it should be done 
a different way. We thought maybe it would be a good idea if we made 
kind of a coordinated effort between the Federal Government, who in 
this bill is authorizing $500,000 to help out, the State of Utah, 
universities, and countries who have come up with a combined effort to 
be able to display these.
  A lot of people have asked, Are there more? Well, there could be 
dozens of them for all we know. We are all nervous about turning over 
any more rocks until someone figures out a way to take care of these 
things. This is a good step forward without the Federal Government 
coming in with their huge resources and spending any hard-earned money 
we take out of the Park Service to figure out a way to do this.
  This bill, H.R. 2385, as amended, would authorize up to $500,000 to 
the City of St. George to facilitate and purchase up to 10 acres of 
land where the footprints and tail drags are located for the protection 
of this resource.
  Mr. Speaker, I think this would be a good thing to do. It is 
interesting to see how many people come to visit. You go down there and 
there are actually bus loads and bus loads of yellow school buses and 
children spilling out to see this. There are people coming in so that 
we have to have interpreters there to speak their language because they 
want to see this. So we do not really have a way to take care of this, 
and this is starting to get it going.
  Dr. Johnson wanted to send this out to all the Members of Congress so 
they can see what it actually looks like to see prints. This is the 
first time they have even had the toe nails in the prints and the tail 
drags and things like that. This unique experience happened to this 
retired ophthalmologist 5 miles east of St. George. Now we have a 
chance to preserve this for time and all eternity, and people can come 
to see it.
  I would suggest to the House that this is one of those better things 
that we could be doing right now to help out something that people will 
come from all over to see it.
  Mr. Speaker, I think this is interesting because just outside of St. 
George this little thing has created worldwide attention. People from 
South Africa have come there, people from Brazil, people from 
Australia, New Zealand. We will now ask some of them to pony-up a few 
bucks to help this thing out.
  Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that in September of 1996 the 
President created the Grand Staircase Escalante, 1.7 million acres; and 
all that money has gone into it and all that work has gone into it. In 
the short time this has been around, it has had a higher visitation 
than the Grand Staircase. Of course, there is nothing to see in the 
Grand Staircase but sagebrush, but maybe some people want to see that.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I am just as fascinated by this find as our esteemed 
chairman.
  H.R. 2358, as reported by the Committee on Resources, is a bipartisan 
proposal to provide the technical and financial assistance for the 
preservation of important paleontological resources that have been 
found in the district of the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen).
  The private property in question contains dinosaur tracks that have 
been seen that were discovered last year. It was evident from our 
hearing on H.R. 2385 before the Committee on Resources and the 
Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands that this 
was a very interesting and exciting dinosaur-related find. However, the 
original proposal to buy the site and give the land to the city of St. 
George, Utah, was highly unusual.
  The administration, while generally supportive, also had a number of 
concerns with the bill as drafted.
  The gentleman from Utah (Chairman Hansen) and members of his staff 
worked closely with the minority and the administration to address the 
concerns of the bill. As a result, an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute was adopted by the Committee on Resources that incorporated 
the suggestions made by the minority regarding the acquisition of this 
site, as well as the changes suggested by the administration.
  I believe that the committee amendment significantly improves the 
bill and would provide a very efficient way to assist in the 
preservation of the unique and well-preserved dinosaur tracks in Utah. 
I appreciate the willingness of the gentleman from Utah (Chairman 
Hansen) and his staff to address the issues identified with his 
legislation. I support the passage of H.R. 2385 and commend our 
chairman on this project.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Radanovich), the new chairman of the 
Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands.
  Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, I lend my support to this bill. I 
believe it is a rare opportunity to protect these resources by creating 
a long-lasting public-private partnership that will protect these 
fossils, while at the same time provide opportunities for the 
scientific community to study these important findings and allow the 
general public rare glimpses into life during the Jurassic Period. I 
think it is exceptional that this is getting more attendance than the 
Grand Escalante Staircase Monument.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the passage of H.R. 
2385.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to 
the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson).
  Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, today we have an opportunity to pass 
legislation that will truly preserve history. Not our history, but the 
history of the Earth over 200 million years ago, the history of the 
dinosaurs.
  200 million years ago, scientists believe that the redrock desert of 
Southern Utah was part of a large shallow lake. Dinosaurs fed at the 
shoreline of this lake. They walked this Earth, and they left their 
tracks.
  Early last spring, in a time far removed from the dinosaurs, a 
retired ophthalmologist living in St. George, Utah, began leveling out 
a part of his yard and discovered what is now being cited as one of the 
best collections of dinosaur footprints ever on Earth.

[[Page H6095]]

 These 150 footprints show the tracks of multiple species of dinosaurs. 
They are detailed, revealing claws, three toes, and the joints where 
dinosaurs may have crouched down.
  Paleontologists currently believe these footprints may be a record of 
the first meat eater in the dinosaur age and potentially include a 
previously unknown species.
  Since the discovery of these tracks, Dr. Sheldon Johnson and his 
wife, LaVerna, have generously shown thousands of visitors through 
their property to see the tracks. In one 2-week period, over 12,000 
people journeyed to Southern Utah to witness this amazing discovery.
  Despite the individual generosity of the Johnsons, in the long term 
these tracks must be preserved. This bill will allow the appropriate 
preservation of these tracks in the necessary condition. It will help 
the city of St. George cope with the visitors, and it will leave a 
history of dinosaurs preserved for over 200 million years for many more 
generations to discover.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support this legislation, and I 
personally look forward to visiting this site often during my frequent 
trips to the St. George area.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 2385, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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