[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15] [Senate] [Pages 20747-20751] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]THE SENATE WILDERNESS AND PUBLIC LANDS CAUCUS Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964, which was signed into law on September 3, 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and to announce the formation of a Senate Wilderness and Public Lands Caucus. The Wilderness Act became law seven years after the first wilderness bill was introduced by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota. The final bill, sponsored by Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico, passed the Senate by a vote of 73-12 on April 9, 1963, and passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 373-1 on July 30, 1964. The Wilderness Act of 1964 established a National Wilderness Preservation System ``to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.'' The law reserves to Congress the authority to designate wilderness areas, and directs the federal land management agencies to review the lands under their responsibility for their wilderness potential. The original Wilderness Act established 9.1 million acres of Forest Service land in 54 wilderness areas. Now, after passage of 102 pieces of legislation [[Page 20748]] the wilderness system is comprised of over 104 million acres in 625 wilderness areas, across 44 States, and administered by four federal agencies: the Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior. As we in this body know well, the passage and enactment of legislation of this type is a remarkable accomplishment. It requires steady, bipartisan commitment, institutional support, and direct leadership. The United States Senate was instrumental in shaping this very important law, and this anniversary gives us the opportunity to recognize this role. I am honored today to be joined on the floor by one of the three Senators remaining in this body who have the distinguished honor of having voted for this legislation, the Senior Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Byrd). I look forward to his remarks at the conclusion of my own. The Senior Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) and the Senior Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye), who also voted for this legislation, have asked that their remarks regarding this anniversary be included in the Record. Their remarks will also appear in the Record together with my remarks on the Wilderness Act anniversary. In addition, I understand that the Ranking Member of the Energy Committee (Mr. Bingaman) has a statement on the anniversary. Under the Wilderness Act, wilderness is defined as ``an area of undeveloped federal land retaining its primeval character and influence which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable.'' The concept of the creation of a national wilderness system marked an innovation in the American conservation movement--wilderness would be a place where our ``management strategy'' would be to leave lands essentially undeveloped. Congress lavished more time and effort on the wilderness bill than almost any other measure in conservation history. The original bill established 9.1 million acres of federally protected wilderness in national forests. From June 1957 until May 1964 there were nine separate hearings on the proposal, collecting over six thousand pages of testimony. The bill itself was modified and rewritten sixty-six different times. Twenty different Senators made statements on the legislation. Much of the delay in reaching a final version stemmed from the conflicts between the scope of the bill's restrictions on mining, grazing, oil and other extractive activities on designated wilderness areas and the need for the law to be flexible in the light of pre- existing activities. The bill's supporters argued that the measure gave legal sanction to the areas already being managed by the Forest Service as primitive areas. More importantly, they successfully argued that Congressional action was necessary because the wilderness that exists is its own finite resource. More than a century of development had brought greatly changed conditions to both public and private lands throughout the country. ``If the year were 1857 instead of 1957,'' one supporter of the bill wrote in the Living Wilderness, the Wilderness Society's newsletter, ``I'd say definitely no [to a wilderness bill]. But given the almost total dominance of developed civilization, I am compelled to work for saving the remnants of undeveloped land.'' I think those remarks apply just as well to the state of our federal lands today, more than thirty- five years later. My interest in this law stems from the fact that Wisconsin has produced great wilderness thinkers and leaders in the wilderness movement such as Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olsen, John Muir and former Senator Gaylord Nelson. Senator Nelson was a co-sponsor of the Wilderness Act of 1964, along with former Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire. I am proud to now hold the Senate seat that Senator Nelson held with distinction from 1963 to 1981. As a Senator from Wisconsin, I have a special depth of feeling about this issue. The testimony at Congressional hearings and the treatment of the bill in the press of the day reveals Wisconsin's crucial role in the long and continuing American debate about our wild places, and the development of the Wilderness Act. The names and ideas of John Muir, Sigurd Olson, and Aldo Leopold, especially Leopold, appear time and time again in the legislative history. Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico, chairman of what was then called the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, stated that his support of the wilderness system was the direct result of discussions he had held almost forty years before with Leopold, who was then in the Southwest with the Forest Service. It was Leopold who advocated, while with the Forest Service, the creation of a primitive area in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico in 1923. The Gila Primitive Area formally became part of the wilderness system when the Wilderness Act became law. In a statement in favor of the Wilderness Act in the New York Times, then Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall discussed ecology and what he called ``a land ethic'' and referred to Leopold as the instigator of the modern wilderness movement. At a Senate hearing in 1961, David Brower of the Sierra Club went so far as to allege that ``no man who reads Leopold with an open mind will ever again, with a clear conscience, be able to step up and testify against the wilderness bill.'' For others, the ideas of Olson and Muir provided a justification for the wilderness system, particularly that the country's strength depends upon blending contact with the primitive into a civilized existence because the frontier played such a central role in the our history. Passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964 has not terminated the American debate over the meaning, value and need to protect wild country. As I mentioned, the wilderness system has dramatically expanded under both Republican and Democratic leadership. The number of wildernesses established and acres designated by each Congress has varied greatly from year to year. There have been only nine individual years since passage of the Wilderness Act when no wildernesses were designated, and 1965 to 1967 was the only period of three consecutive years in which no wilderness legislation was passed by Congress. In 1984, during the Reagan Administration, 175 wildernesses were established, more than double any other year's addition. Despite the record number of new wildernesses in 1984, the largest number of wilderness acres was designated in 1980 with passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which added over 56 million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Combined with other wilderness laws passed that year, nearly 61 million acres of wilderness were designated in 1980, more than 6 times the number of acres passed in any other year. Significant additions to the system continued up until 1994, when Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act. Despite this accomplishment, Congress has gotten out of the habit of passing wilderness bills which protect our remaining wilderness-quality federal lands. In the 105th Congress, the Senate's actions were much more modest--we added about 160 acres to the Eagles Nest Wilderness in Colorado. However, Congress has much bolder bills before it, with bipartisan support, such as the bills to designate 9.1 million acres in Utah and the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness. In addition, President Clinton proposed a new omnibus National Parks wilderness bill in his State of the Union. We need to address these measures, and to revitalize the tradition of statewide and state delegation led wilderness bills. In order to get the Senate in a position to act on wilderness issues, I hope to raise awareness of the importance of wilderness in the Senate. I have been working to organize a Wilderness and Public Lands Caucus that will help the Senate to renew its bipartisan commitment to the active protection of wilderness and public lands. Today I am delighted to announce that Senator McCain, Senator Durbin, Senator Feinstein, Senator Murray, and Senator Bayh will be joining me in this effort. I encourage any member of the [[Page 20749]] Senate interested in learning about and working on these issues to join our caucus, and I am grateful to these members who are willing to lend their time and leadership. I feel it is time to promote and re-develop expertise on these issues in the Senate. In the early days of the Wilderness Act many Senators had expertise on these issues, and ad hoc coalitions formed to pass large bills with provisions for a number of states. However, now that the Senate has lost its zeal for the continuing work of identifying and designating wilderness areas this expertise has dwindled. Without a new dedication to re-building this expertise, wilderness and public lands issues will remain increasingly divisive, despite a resurgent public interest in our wilderness and an increased public desire for Congress to extend additional protection to federal lands of wilderness quality. I intend for the caucus to meet as necessary during each Senate session in pursuit of several objectives: To assist members in defending existing wilderness areas, and other federal land resources already protected in the public trust, from activities that have the potential to significantly affect the qualities for which they were designated. To support and provide advice to members seeking opportunities to designate new wilderness areas. To provide members with a bipartisan forum in which to discuss wilderness and other public land protection and management issues and learn from others' expertise. To educate members about the Wilderness Act and other federal land management statutes, and to improve understanding of the appropriate uses of various federal land management designations and the federal financial and management requirements needed to implement them. Mr. President, many would agree that more must be done to protect our wild places. One of the things that needs to be done, particularly on the cusp of the Millennium, is to examine and improve the ability of this body to understand and grapple with these issues in the public interest. This is a great institution, with a strong conservation history, which has produced the Wilderness Act, one of the gems of conservation law. I am actively committing to working on wilderness issues because I believe it to be in the Wisconsin tradition, and, as a Senator, I am trying to use the tools I have been given by the people of Wisconsin to build the leadership needed to defend these places. In conclusion, I would like to remind colleagues of the words of Aldo Leopold in his 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac. He said, ``The outstanding scientific discovery of the Twentieth Century is not the television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little is known about it.'' We still have much to learn, but this anniversary of the Wilderness Act reminds us how far we have come and how powerful a collegial commitment to public lands can be in the Senate. I am very pleased and honored to be able to yield the remainder of my time to one of the three Senators who is here to vote for this legislation, the senior Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Byrd. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia is recognized. Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Wisconsin, Senator Feingold, for bringing us together today to celebrate the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Too often, the pressing events of the day prevent us from remembering so many important pieces of legislation. I am happy that we are able to take a moment to recognize a historic piece of legislation. Let me begin with a look backward over the well-traveled road of history. It is only fitting that we turn our faces backward so that we might be better informed and prepared to deal with future events. On a whole range of important issues, the Senate has always been blessed with Senators who were able to rise above political parties, and consider first and foremost the national interest. There are many worthy examples throughout the Senate's history. My friend and former colleague, Senator Mike Mansfield, and other distinguished Members of the Senate understood this point well. Political polarization, a simple zero-sum strategy by one party to achieve a short-lived victory which demonizing the other party, is not now, and has never been, a good thing for the Senate. I know that Americans have always loved a good debate. I believe that this is one of the lessons that we can take from the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Members on both sides of the issue focused on the more substantive and stimulating policy challenges rather than allowing pure politics and imagery to enter into the fray. The debate on the Wilderness Act of 1964 serves as a great example of the Senate's charge in taking a leadership role and working over the long term to pass historic pieces of legislation. I believe the bill's chief sponsor, Senator Clinton Anderson from New Mexico, understood this point well when he said, upon consideration of the conference report, on August 20, 1964: What we have done we have done not only to meet the urgency of the moment, but for the future. In no area has this Congress more decisively served the future well-being of the Nation that in passing legislation to conserve natural resources and to provide the means by which our people could enjoy them. One of the brightest stars in the constellation of conservation measures is the wilderness bill * * *. The path of the wilderness legislation through Congress has sometimes been as rugged as the forests and mountains embraced by the wilderness system. The Senate understood there was a need to protect America's unique places, and Members worked to craft a proposal over a number of years that could achieve that end. Senator George McGovern, another key supporter of the Wilderness Act, observed: I think each of us has been enriched at one time or another through our experiences with natural undisturbed areas of the country * * * its comparatively uncluttered open spaces, its lakes and woods, have special appreciation for the purpose of the wilderness preservation system. As the population of our country grows and as our city areas become more contested, it is all the more imperative that we look to the preservation of great primitive outdoor areas where people can go for recreational and inspirational experience. The U.S. population has since grown by more than 70 percent since the Wilderness Act of 1964 was enacted. In addition to land preservation, the act has encouraged the discovery of America's history, promoted recreation, provided for its diverse wildlife and ecosystems, and satisfied people's urge for solace and a return to wild places. The definition of wilderness according to the act is ``an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.'' Initially endowed with 9.1 million acres of public lands, the wilderness system today encompasses more than 104 million acres in forty-four States. My home state of West Virginia remains wild and wonderful because of Congress' actions. Covered from end to end by the ancient Appalachian Mountains, West Virginia remains, to me, one of the most beautiful one of the most unique of all places and I have seen lot of places throughout the world in my time. It is the most southern of the northern States and the most northern of the Southern states; the most eastern of the Western States and the most western of the eastern States; where the east says good morning to the west, and where Yankee Doodle and Dixie kiss each other good night. The luscious mountains gently roll across that land, providing an elegant sense of mystery to the landscape. The wilderness of my State has given West Virginians a freedom to explore. This freedom has been secured and protected so that future generations--like my baby granddaughter, her children, and her children's children--will be able to say Montani Semper Liberi, Mountaineers are always free! Four wilderness areas have been designated in West Virginia since the 1964 act. Each area captures and preserves uniquely a beautiful aspect of a State that has, I believe, more than its fair [[Page 20750]] share of native loveliness. God must have been in a spendthrift mood when he made West Virginia! In the Otter Creek Wilderness Area, consisting of 20,000 acres so designated in 1975, you can follow the same twisting trails that early settlers to the area wove through the dense forest. Amid the stands of towering White Oaks, dark hickory, and ghostly poplar trees, you may discover stunted groves of apple trees, remnants of an early settler's orchard. Maybe Johnny Appleseed came that way. Also designated in 1975, the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area preserves 10,000 acres of Canada that somehow migrated south and chose to settle in West Virginia. Heath thickets, bogs, and low-growing evergreens combine to establish a wide open feeling akin to more northerly climes such as those of Minnesota. Offering scenic vistas, Dolly Sods is a famed spot in which to enjoy hiking, camping, fishing, and nature watching. The Cranberry Wilderness Area proves the regenerative power of nature. Its 35,864 acres were logged in the early part of this century, with the valuable timber shipped by steam locomotives to a mill in Richwood. It also suffered severe wildfires which raged over much of the area. In order to restore it to its natural condition, the Forest Service purchased the land in 1934--the year I graduated from high school. Now grown into a mature forest, the Cranberry Wilderness Area received its official designation in 1983. Consisting of more than 12,000 acres, Laurel Fork Wilderness Area was once a profitable source of lumber at the beginning of the century. Laurel Fork has since been preserved and is a source of the Cheat River. Designated in 1983, Laurel Fork Wilderness has a wide blend of wildlife and foliage special to Appalachia. Among the Birch, Beech, and Maple trees which grow in the area, live the native species of West Virginia such as white-tail deer, wild turkey, bobcat, and even black bear. I might note that perhaps one of the most majestic of wildlife species protected by these wilderness areas throughout the U.S. is the bald eagle. Symbolizing America's freedom and strength, the bald eagle, in fact, has been recently removed from the endangered species list, and will continue to soar for future generations of Americans. The Wilderness Act of 1964 enabled West Virginians to preserve the natural beauty of their State for themselves and for the nation * * * now and forever. I believe that Senator Anderson summarized it best when he said: Deep down inside of most Americans is a love of the out-of- doors. * * * It is an effort to protect and preserve, unspoiled, just a little bit of the vast wilderness which stretched ocean to ocean on this continent less than 300 years ago, so that this love of the great, unspoiled, out-of- doors which is a part of us can be gratified. I would like to take a moment to recognize a number of former colleagues who took a leadership role in passing the Wilderness Act of 1964. Many of them were fairly close friends of mine. There was Senator Anderson, whose name I have spoken earlier, Thomas Kuchel, Hubert Humphrey, Henry Jackson, Frank Church, Frank Lausche, Paul Douglas, Harrison Williams, Jennings Randolph--my former colleague from West Virginia--Joseph Clark, William Proxmire, Maurine Neuberger, Lee Metcalf, George McGovern, David Nelson--they took a leadership role in guiding this piece of legislation through the Senate. The Senate has considered many thousands of pieces of legislation on a myriad of topics over the last several years. I am proud to stand here today and say that this piece of legislation, the Wilderness Act of 1964, stands as a great example of what this body can accomplish when it sets its collective mind to it. These were the sponsors of the Wilderness Act in the 88th Congress. In closing, I want to welcome my colleagues back from the prairies and the plains, the mountains and the hollows and the hills, the broad valleys. We have much work to do in these coming weeks and we can learn much from the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the dedication and commitment of those Senators who worked to fulfill their vision by enacting that great piece of legislation, their vision of a future continent which would be preserved for the men and women who would come after them. Far too often these days, we get caught up in the partisan wranglings of tax cuts, educational needs, national security demands, Social Security changes, health care reform, and much, much more--all of which subjects are extremely important. The public has become concerned about what it is that we actually do in this Chamber. In reflecting upon the Wilderness Act of 1964, I find a great example of what this body can achieve when it puts its whole mind and its whole spirit into it. Again I thank my colleague for his kindness in inviting me to participate here this afternoon in recalling our footsteps down the long hall of memories. In closing, I am reminded of the words of one of America's foremost conservationists and outdoorsman, John Muir-- Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, inciting at once to work and rest! Days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God. Nevermore, however weary, should one faint by the way who gains the blessing of one mountain day: whatever his fate, long life, short life, stormy or calm, he is rich forever. . . . I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was going in. One touch of nature . . . makes all the world kin. I yield the floor. Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is an honor to join my colleagues in commemorating this impressive anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Thirty-five years ago, Congress passed this benchmark legislation, which has opened the door for extensive new protections of wilderness areas throughout the nation. In 1924, the U.S. Forest Service named the Gila National Forest in New Mexico as the first wilderness area. As years passed, it became increasingly clear that a more comprehensive strategy of protection for these priceless areas was needed. Between 1957 and 1964, nine congressional hearings were held, resulting in sixty-six rewrites of the original bill. This enormous amount of attention can be credited to the strong grassroots support for preserving these magnificent resources. As a result, Congress passed the Wilderness Act. It was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on September 3, 1964, and established over nine million acres of wilderness areas throughout the country. The act defined wilderness as ``an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.'' Although sharply restricting human activities in these areas, the Act also paid tribute to a piece of our national identity. To Americans, the wilderness is a place to rediscover what it means to be American. As Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once noted, ``Roadless areas are one pledge of freedom.'' From the time of the first settlers, the nation's wilderness areas have been symbols of freedom and human ingenuity that characterize the American dream. In his classic work, Wilderness and the American Mind, Roderick Nash observed the close relationship between our citizens and such areas, stating ``Take away wilderness and you take away the opportunity to be American.'' The Wilderness Act has protected these priceless undeveloped areas, and it has preserved these magnificent resources for our time and for all time. Since this law was enacted, Congress has created over six hundred wilderness areas, totaling more than one hundred million acres in states across our nation. These are areas that cannot be developed or destroyed, but will retain the original splendor of their natural beauty. It was a special privilege for me to support the Wilderness Act in 1964, as one of the most far-reaching actions by Congress to preserve our environmental heritage. All of us take pride in the many beautiful areas designated under the Act. Finally, I commend all those who have done so much to uphold the great [[Page 20751]] tradition of the Wilderness Act, by working in the agencies that are committed to protecting the nation's wilderness. As the act itself so eloquently states, they continue to ``secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.'' Mr. INOUYE. Mr President, it is a pleasure to have this opportunity to speak on the 35th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and on the establishment of the National Wilderness Preservation System. When the Wilderness Act was being debated on the Senate floor in 1963, I was a freshman Senator. Following Hawaii's admission to the union in 1959, I served one partial and one full term in the House of Representatives and then was elected to the Senate in 1962. So, in early April of 1963, I was a 39-year-old freshman Senator in the first year of my first term in the Senate. The Wilderness Act, however, was not new to the Senate when it came to the floor in April 1963. The first wilderness proposal was introduced late in the 84th Congress in 1956. Following extensive hearings, testimony, debate and revisions, a wilderness bill was passed by a wide margin in the Senate on September 6, 1961. However, it was not until my freshman year in the Senate that we passed a wilderness bill that ultimately went on to become law the next year in 1964. Just prior to the vote in the Senate on April 9, 1963, one of the floor managers of the bill, the Honorable Frank Church of Idaho, said, ``the Senate is about to vote on the question of the passage of a bill which, if enacted into law, will be regarded as one of the great landmarks in the history of conservation.'' You can imagine the effect of such far reaching and nationally significant discourse on a young man from a new state in the middle of the Pacific. I have been around for a while. Yesterday was my 75th birthday. But I am not so jaded as to have lost sight of the important principles upon which the Wilderness Act was founded. The bill was ultimately signed into law on September 3, 1964. To me, it seems like just yesterday, but a lot has happened since then. The Wilderness system was originally endowed with 9.1 million acres of national forest lands. In 35 years, that has grown to more than 104 million acres managed by four federal land management agencies. Hawaii, obviously a very small State, has just 142,370 acres of federally designated wilderness area. This is about 1/10 of 1% of the total designated wilderness area in the country. However, let me tell you about Hawaii's wilderness and other natural areas. Hawaii is the only State with bona fide tropical rain forest. Although over half of Hawaii's original native rain forest has been lost or replaced by introduced species, planted landscapes, or development, a great deal remains. Perhaps 3/4 of a million acres of rain forest is left in Hawaii. Rain forest is just the start, however. There are actually about 150 distinct ecosystem types in Hawaii. These ecosystems are so distinctive that the Hawaiian Islands constitute a unique global bio-region. These ecosystems range from 14,000-foot snowy alpine deserts, to subterranean lava tube systems with eyeless creatures, to windswept coastal dunes. All told, perhaps half of the 150 ecosystem types in Hawaii are considered in trouble, imperilled by human-related changes in the landscape. Most of the loss has occurred along the coasts and in the lowlands, where the majority of human habitation exists today. Hawaii is also considered to be the extinction capital of the United States. About 90% of Hawaii's native plants and animals occur nowhere else in the world, and nearly 1000 different kinds of Hawaiian plants and animals are threatened by extinction. Approximately 75% of the recorded extinctions in the United States are from Hawaii. Also, about 40% of the birds and 30% of the plants presently on the U.S. endangered species list are native to Hawaii. One of Hawaii's federal wilderness areas is the 19,270-acre Haleakala Wilderness Area on the Island of Maui, which was designated in 1976. This area is part of the 28,655-acre Haleakala National Park. During the August recess, I participated in the dedication of 1,500 acres of pristine tropical habitat, which was added to Haleakala National Park thanks to the support of my Congressional colleagues who approved funds last year for its acquisition. So, Haleakala continues to grow. The major feature of this park is the dormant, though not extinct, Mount Haleakala and its volcanic crater within. Stretching from an elevation of 10,000 feet to the sea, the park also includes unrivaled native forest and stream habitat, and abundant Native Hawaiian historical and cultural features. The other Federal wilderness area is the 123,100-acre Hawaii Volcanoes Wilderness Area, which is part of the larger 230,000-acre Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. This park, established in 1916, displays the results of 70 million years of volcanism and rises from sea level to the summit of the earth's most massive volcano, Mauna Loa at 13,677 feet. Within the park is the world's most active volcano, Kilauea, which offers scientists insights into the birth of our planet and visitors views of dramatic volcanic landscapes. Molten lava from the Puu Oo vent, on the flank of Kilauea volcano, flows seven miles through a lava tube to the coast where it enters the ocean, causing the sea to actually boil. Volume of flow averages about 400,000 cubic meters per day continuously adding new land to the island. 1999 is 16th year of this ongoing eruption of Kilauea. More than just these designated federal wilderness areas, Hawaii has a total of 270,000 acres in the national park system; 35,000 acres in federal fish and wildlife refuges; and 109,000 acres in state natural area reserves. Added to this are other areas managed privately for conservation purposes, including approximately 25,000 acres managed by The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii. Wilderness is defined in the law as areas ``where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.'' With all of the unique and imperilled species and habitat in Hawaii, I certainly understand the value of protecting our wild and natural areas, whatever the definition might be. The message that I would like to leave with my colleagues as we think about the 35th anniversary of the Wilderness Act is that we all wish to be environmentalists. We often differ on the details of environmentalism; sometimes greatly. Some of the most impassioned discussions in this body have to do with environmental issues. Some of us do not receive the highest score from the League of Conservation Voters. However, I do not think any of my colleagues would say that environmental conservation is a frivolous pursuit. It is merely a question of degree. So where does that leave us? I know we will continue to debate so- called anti-environmental riders, the future of the Endangered Species Act, and maybe even reforms to the 35-year-old Wilderness Act. But let us not close our minds to our perceived adversaries, nor lose sight of what I believe we all agree upon. Our natural environment is a finite resource that needs to be protected and nurtured for generations to come. There are no simple solutions, but with this common goal in mind, we will make progress. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa. Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent I be permitted to speak up to 15 minutes as in morning business. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________