[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 28, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E243]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     HONORING THE MEMORY OF ACTIVIST AND CONSTITUENT DAVID BURWELL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JAMIE RASKIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 28, 2017

  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor David Burwell who 
passed away on February 1, 2017. David will be remembered as a 
passionate activist for conservation and environmental advocacy. In a 
decades-long career, he made many important contributions to 
environmental progress through his early work with the National 
Wildlife Federation, by co-founding the visionary Rails-to-Trails 
Conservancy (RTC), and in serving as director of the Energy and Climate 
Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
   Mr. Burwell is remembered by his RTC co-founder Peter Harkin as ``a 
voracious learner and a fearless instigator,'' for whom ``no unexplored 
fact was too insignificant, and no challenge was too large.'' These 
qualities served him well in the 1980s, when all across the country, 
thousands of miles of railroad were falling out of use each year. 
Instead of simply watching this land be sold-off and re-developed, Mr. 
Burwell worked with Congress to preserve railroad corridors as hiking 
trails for current and future generations of outdoor enthusiasts and 
railroad history buffs.
   He is survived by his wife Irini, his son and daughter-in-law, his 
two granddaughters, and his brother. May his life's work be an 
inspiration to all of us.

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