    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [December 14, 1999]
    [Pages 2296-2297]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Lands Legacy Initiative
    December 14, 1999

        Thank you very much. Secretary Babbitt and
    George Frampton and all the members
    of our administration are glad to welcome the environmental leaders who
    are here today.
        At the dawn of this century, Theodore Roosevelt defined America's
    great central task as ``leaving this land even a better land for our
    descendants than it is for us.'' This is the vision

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    of environmental stewardship that has inspired our lands legacy
    initiative, the historic plan I unveiled earlier this year to protect
    America's threatened green and open spaces.
        Two weeks ago I had the great honor of signing into law the funding
    for this lands legacy initiative. Although much of the news of that day
    concentrated on budget victories for education and public safety, it was
    also a remarkable day for the environment. With one stroke of the pen,
    we made it possible to add hundreds of thousands of acres to our
    children's endowment of natural wonders, places like New Mexico's Baca
    Ranch, home to one of North America's largest herds of wild elk.
        Today I will be sending to Congress a list of 18 additional natural
    and historic sites we propose to protect with new lands legacy funding.
    Our list includes sections of Hawaii's Hakalau Forest, which supports
    hundreds of species of rare plants and birds. It includes critical
    habitat on Florida's Pelican Island, where Theodore Roosevelt
    established the Nation's very first wildlife preserve. It includes the
    birth home and burial place of Martin Luther King, Jr.
        We now have funding to protect all these places. We have willing
    sellers, and we look forward to speedy review by the appropriate
    committees in Congress.
        I'm also pleased to report on the status of yet another effort to
    protect the lands we hold sacred. A year ago I asked Secretary
    Babbitt to report to me on unique and fragile
    places that deserve to be protected as national monuments. This morning
    Secretary Babbitt presented me with his recommendation that I use my
    executive authority to create three new national monuments in Arizona
    and California and to significantly expand another in California. Each
    of the sites already belongs to the American people, and no land
    purchases would be required. But giving these lands national monument
    status would ensure they will be passed along to future generations,
    healthy and whole.
        The first of the proposed new monuments is located on the northern
    rim of the Grand Canyon, and it consists of stunning canyons and lonely
    buttes shaped by the hand of God over millions of years. The second, a
    desert region in the shadow of rapidly expanding Phoenix, is an
    archaeological treasure trove containing some of the most extraordinary
    prehistoric ruins and petroglyphs in the American Southwest. The third,
    off the coast of California, would encompass thousands of small islands
    and reefs that serve as essential habitat for sea otters and sea birds
    forced from the shore by extensive development. Finally, this proposal
    calls for expanding California's Pinnacles National Monument, the site
    of the spectacular volcanic spires and mountain caves.
        Secretary Babbitt's recommendations come
    as a result of careful analysis and extensive discussions with local
    citizen, State and local officials, and with Members of Congress. And I
    will take them very seriously. I expect to make a decision on the sites
    early next year.
        Like Theodore Roosevelt, I believe there are certain places
    humankind simply cannot improve upon, places whose beauty and interest
    no photograph could capture, places you simply have to see for yourself.
    We must use this time of unparalleled prosperity to ensure people will
    always be able to see these places as we see them today.
        There is no greater gift we can offer to the new millennium than to
    protect these treasures for all Americans for all time.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:52 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House.