[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[April 15, 2000]
[Pages 720-722]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Signing the Proclamation Establishing the Giant Sequoia 
National Monument in Sequoia National Forest, California
April 15, 2000

    Thank you very much. Thank you, and good morning. I think we should 
all be very grateful for the beautiful day we have. I know it was 
exciting that it snowed here last night--[laughter]--but I was watching 
Alexander give his fine remarks, and I 
was thinking that growing older has some merit, but one thing it doesn't 
have is the ability to withstand cold better. [Laughter] We took this 
whole walk, and there he is in his short-sleeve shirt, and he never 
flinched, he never shivered, he just walked right on. I want to thank 
Alexander for his remarks and for his 
example and the work that he has done and the other young people he has 
exposed to this magnificent grove.
    I want to thank Secretary Glickman and Art 
Gaffrey. Secretary Glickman did a lot of 
work on this, and he talked about it in advance, and I'll say a few more 
words about it, but I appreciate it. Art told me he's been here almost 5 
years now.
    And I want to thank Marta Brown, who 
is, herself, a remarkably devoted and accomplished public citizen. I 
wish George were here with us today. I think he's smiling down on us, 
and I'm glad you could be a part of this. Thank you, Mike 
Dombeck and Jim Lyons. 
And I'd also like to thank my main environmental adviser, George 
Frampton, who runs our Council on 
Sustainable Development, Environmental Quality, for being here.
    I'd like to thank the representatives of the Tule River Tribe who 
are here, who also cherish these great trees. Thank you for coming.
    About 100 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt dedicated America's first 
national monuments. He said he was doing it because we couldn't improve 
upon our native landscape. In his words, ``The ages have been at work on 
it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is keep it for your 
children and your children's children.''
    Well, as we have already heard today, these giant sequoias clearly 
are the work of the ages. They grow taller than the Statue of Liberty, 
broader than a bus. They are the largest living things on this Earth, so 
perfectly adapted to their environment that one has never been known to 
die of old age. And as has already been said, many we have seen today 
are more than 1,500 years old. They began when America was not even 
imagined and Europe was in the Dark Ages.
    Once these groves flourished all across the American West. Today, 
they exist only here in the Sierras. Our second national park was 
created in 1890 to protect them. Yet half the remaining groves lie 
outside the national park. And although sequoias on Federal lands are 
currently protected from logging, the environment around them must also 
be protected for the great trees to grow and reproduce.
    That is why we're here today. We're looking forward to the first 
Earth Day of the 21st century, and I think the best way to celebrate it 
is to designate the Trail of 100 Giants, more than 30 nearby sequoia 
groves, and the magnificent forest that surrounds them, the Giant 
Sequoia National Monument.
    These lands will continue to be managed by the Forest Service, as it 
once again embraces the conservation ethic that inspired its creation 95 
years ago. More and more Americans are discovering our national forests, 
with places to hike, camp, ride horses, enjoy a few hours of quiet 
contemplation. Years from now, Americans will come here to do all these 
things, and these

[[Page 721]]

majestic trees will continue, as John Muir said, to ``preach God's 
forestry fresh from heaven.''
    I know there have been strong and sometimes conflicting views about 
the best way to manage these Federal lands. Secretary Glickman 
recommended that they be protected after careful analysis and 
consultation with the residents of the area, State, tribal, and local 
officials, and Members of Congress. The Forest Service will work with 
the local community closely to develop a long-term plan. We want to 
ensure that all of the interests are respected and that we help to bring 
jobs and opportunity to the area.
    This is not about locking lands up; it is about freeing them up for 
all Americans for all time. We're here because we recognize that these 
trees, though they live to be very old and grow very large, like life 
itself are still fragile. The roots are surprisingly shallow, and the 
greatest threat to the trees' life is any disturbance to the tenuous 
balance between the tree and the ground that anchors it.
    Thirty years ago next week, Americans celebrated the first Earth Day 
because they understood that we, too, have shallow roots on this planet 
and that our future depends upon balance among all living things. The 
story since then is a story of American progress to protect and preserve 
that balance.
    Since 1970, we've cleaned up many of our worst toxic waste sites and 
waterways, cut toxic factory emissions almost in half. The American 
people have made environmental protection part of their daily lives. 
They have demanded that government and industry act to protect our 
national treasures.
    I am profoundly grateful for the opportunities that Vice President 
Gore and I have had over this last 7 years and a few months to act as 
stewards of our environment. We have adopted the strongest air quality 
protections ever, improved the safety of our drinking water and food, 
cleaned up about 3 times as many toxic waste sites as the two previous 
administrations combined, helped to promote a new generation of fuel-
efficient vehicles and vehicles that run on alternative fuels, launched 
new efforts to fight the sprawl that threatens so many of our quality of 
life. We've helped hundreds of communities to turn dangerous brownfields 
deserted by industry into safe, productive space. And yes, we have tried 
to protect a lot of our Nation's precious treasures.
    It seems to me that these last 7 years should finally have put to 
rest the idea that you can't have a strong economy and a cleaner, safer, 
more balanced environment. And I hope we will never have that debate 
again.
    On this Earth Day I would like to emphasize three things: first, 
obviously, this national monument; second, what more we can do to 
preserve the most beautiful places in this country for all our 
children's futures. We have a lands legacy initiative to protect green 
spaces, from the most remote mountains to the nearest city park. This 
year I've asked Congress to provide $1.4 billion to protect those 
special places, including nearby Dillingwood Grove, the last privately 
held grove of giant sequoias. I hope we get the money for that, too. But 
the thing I want all of you to understand is that if this fund passes, 
most of the money will go to States and communities to help them pursue 
their own conservation priorities, including communities here in 
California. It will empower people all across America to protect those 
things that are most dear to them, close at hand, on a permanent basis.
    I'm happy to report that there's strong bipartisan support for this. 
We had a great meeting last week at the White House with Republican and 
Democratic congressional leaders, and I think we've got a good chance to 
build the lands legacy initiative this year.
    Second, we need to invest in the future of our environment not just 
at home but around the world. Tropical forests--where a lot of us would 
like to be right now--[laughter]--tropical forests are home to more than 
half the known species on Earth. Yet they're being lost at the rate--
now, think about this; we came here to save these trees--tropical 
forests, the home of many indigenous peoples as well, are being lost at 
the rate of 50 acres a minute. This year I have proposed a greening the 
globe initiative to help developing countries protect their endangered 
forests and better manage their natural heritage.
    And all these efforts to preserve biodiversity are important. But 
the last point I'd like to make is, they won't do much good--if I get 
killed by this falling ice--[laughter]-- they won't do much good unless 
we band together to meet the greatest environmental challenge of the new 
century, climate change and global warming.
    The 1990's were the hottest decade on record. Scientists say that 
the temperature rise is at least partly due to human activity, and that 
if

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unchecked, climate change will result in more storms and floods, more 
economic disruptions, more permanent flooding of coastal areas, perhaps 
the entire flooding of island nations, and more threats to unique 
habitats such as the one in which we are today.
    So the last point I want to make is, I hope all of you will help us 
to build a national consensus to cut down our emissions of greenhouse 
gases and to work with others around the world to use existing 
technologies to help them do the same. I urge those in Congress who have 
opposed our efforts to drop their opposition, to recognize that we now 
have the technology--and we will soon have much more--to cut emissions 
while continuing to grow the economy.
    For example, we have the technology to reduce by 85 percent the 
amount of energy it takes to run a refrigerator. We will soon have cars 
on the street that routinely get more than 60 miles a gallon and new 
technologies such as fuel cells and biofuels to give us the equivalent 
of hundreds of miles from every gallon of gasoline. Just by changing the 
lights in the White House, I cut the power bills $100,000 a year. 
[Laughter] And we put in a new heating system, a more fuel efficient 
roofing system.
    If the changes we made in the White House were made in every Federal 
building, which I'm trying to get done, we would take the equivalent--we 
would reduce greenhouse gases so much it would be the equivalent of 
taking 1.7 million cars a year off the road. These things are out there 
now. They will generate jobs; they will generate economic activity. And 
it is profoundly important that all of us who think about these things 
continue to talk to our friends and neighbors until we build a vast 
national consensus for concerted action.
    Now, I've asked Congress for over $2 billion for this, to fund 
local, national, and international efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, 
to fund clean technologies, to provide tax incentives for those who 
produce and those who purchase these kinds of products.
    Now, before I sign the proclamation, let me just remind you that for 
over 100 years, beginning with the residents of Visalia, California, 
Americans have sought to save these giant sequoias. Earth Day brought 
groups of Americans together on a crusade to save the treasures of our 
planet.
    Today let's remember, even here on the Trail of 100 Giants, the 
global village presses even closer upon us. We have to look within our 
communities and beyond our borders for allies to deal with our common 
environmental challenges. We're doing our part today to make sure that 
the monarchs will be here after we're long gone, rooted strong in the 
web of nature that sustains us all.
    It has been a great honor for me to be here. I thank all of you who 
have supported these decisions. I thank you, again, Secretary 
Glickman. But I ask you, when you walk out of 
here today, remember that not every person can come to this gorgeous 
giant grove, but every person can benefit from our continued efforts to 
improve our environment and sustain our natural heritage. And we still 
have a very great deal to do.
    Thank you very much.

 Note:  The President spoke at 9:10 a.m. on the Trail of 100 Giants. In 
his remarks, he referred to Eagle Scout Alexander Reed-Krase, who 
introduced the President; Arthur L. Gaffrey, forest supervisor, Sequoia 
National Forest; and Marta Macias Brown, widow of former Representative 
George E. Brown, Jr. The proclamation is listed in Appendix D at the end 
of this volume.