    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
    [August 15, 2003]
    [Pages 1015-1019]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in
    Thousand Oaks, California
    August 15, 2003

        Thank you all for coming. This is a beautiful place to gather. It's
    a little different from Crawford--[laughter]--but the work is just as
    hard. If it looks like I'm kind of sweaty, it's because I am. [Laughter]
    I've been shoveling dirt to make sure the trails are maintained so
    people can use them.
        Before I talk about our park system, I do want to say that the
    people of New York City and New York State and the people of the
    Northeast and Midwest who were affected by last night's blackout were--
    kept their calm, were decent to their neighbors, really showed the rest
    of the country and the world the true character of the American people.
    I want to thank all of them for how they dealt with a very difficult
    situation and assure them that Federal, State, and local authorities are
    working hard to get the power up and running to take care of the needs
    of the people. And at the same time, we'll figure out what went wrong,
    and we'll address it. We will view this rolling blackout as a wake-up
    call, a wake-up call for the need to modernize our electricity delivery
    systems, and we'll respond.
        And what we're here to talk about today is how do we make sure our
    national asset, the National Park System, has got a modern
    infrastructure system as well, so that the people who own the park, the
    American people, can use the parks. After all, the parks are owned by
    the people of this country, and we want the park system to work well,
    and we want there to be a modern infrastructure. We want the 80 million
    acres of national park land to be accessible and comfortable to use for
    the American people, and at the same time, we want to respect nature and
    honor God's great gift to our country by conserving these beautiful
    properties all across the country.
        The responsibility to maintain our parks has not always been met in
    America. It's a problem that we will address, and helping me address the
    problem is the Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton. You know, I picked somebody from the West to run the
    Interior Department because I felt like,

    [[Page 1016]]

    in her case, she was sensitive to the needs of the people and to the
    needs of the land. And she's doing a heck of a good job on behalf of the
    American people. And I appreciate you being here.
        And Fran Mainella is with us today.
    She's the Director of the National Park Service. Hi, Fran. When I tell
    you what we're going to do about maintaining our parks, really what I'm
    doing is telling you what she's going to do--[laughter]--in
    collaboration with the good folks who work for the Interior Department,
    the good folks who wear the hats, the people that are out on the
    frontline of maintaining our parks and making sure our parks are
    accessible to the American people, the park rangers, the dedicated
    employees who are--really make a difference in the people's lives. I
    want to thank you all for your hard work on behalf of the American
    people.
        I had a chance to spend some quality time with such a person, Woody
    Smeck; he's the Superintendent of the Santa
    Monica Mountains. [Applause] Woody, it's a good sign when people who
    work with you cheer for you. [Laughter] I can see why. Woody cares a lot
    about the land. He cares deeply about the people who use the land. Woody
    has got a tough job. He manages the largest urban park in America, but
    it's a park that requires collaboration with State officials--and I want
    to thank the State officials who are here--requires cooperation with the
    local officials, and it requires collaboration with private property
    owners in order to make sure the park works the way we want it to work.
    And Woody, you're doing a heck of a good job, and I appreciate your
    service to our country.
        We've got some mayors with us today, and I'm honored you all are
    here. Andy Fox and Greg Hill and James Bozajian are here
    with us. The local mayors of Thousand Oaks and Redondo Beach and
    Calabasas, California, are integral players in making sure the park
    system works. I asked the question, how are the local people--they were
    responding well to your initiatives that Woody
    has laid out? And he said, ``Absolutely.'' He said the cooperation is
    fantastic. So Mayors, I want to thank you for coming, but more
    importantly, I want to thank you for doing your job in a way that makes
    your citizens proud.
        I'm also am so proud that my friend Elton Gallegly is here with us. He is the congressman from this area.
    He cares a lot about this park. He cares a lot about the people who live
    in this congressional district. And Elton and I are going to work hard
    to make sure the appropriations process reflects our desire, our common
    desire, to maintain the park system of America. And Elton, thank you for
    coming.
        One of the things that makes the park systems go and really function
    well is the volunteer effort all around our country, and you've got a
    fantastic volunteer effort here. I met two such people today. Melvin
    Caradine, he is a volunteer here. He
    leads tours. He shares his knowledge with the people who come to visit.
    And Ralph Waycott, he is the volunteer
    coordinator for the Rancho Sierra Vista Nursery. I don't know if Ralph
    was a botanist in college or not--[laughter]--but it sure sounded like
    it. [Laughter] He knows a lot about what he's talking about.
        He and Melvin really represent the best of the country, when you think
    about it--people who are willing to take time out of their lives and to,
    in this case, make the park system work and make our fellow citizens
    feel comfortable and knowledgeable when they come to the parks. I'm told
    there's a couple hundred volunteers who come here on a regular basis to
    help make sure this park works, and I want to thank you. And I urge
    others that if you're interested in serving your community, interested
    in serving your country, volunteer at a park. Make it work better. Help
    restore it. Help the hard-working employees and dedicated folks that are
    in charge of our parks; help make their job easier. And so

    [[Page 1017]]

    for those of you who are here who volunteer, thanks a lot for what you
    do.
        What's interesting about this place is, there are over 33 million
    visitors who come here. That's a lot. [Laughter] There are a lot of
    people who use this park, and that's good. That's the way it should be.
    And I can see why they come. It's a beautiful spot. Fantastic trails--
    it's a good opportunity for people to care of their physiques--
    [laughter]--by taking off in the hills and a getting yourself a good
    walk on a daily basis. But 33 million people use this.
        The truth of the matter is, God designed this park's beauty, but men
    and women make sure it remains beautiful. And that's an important part
    about conservation: It's man's ability to make sure that God's beauty is
    maintained and preserved and that when people use it, they use it in a
    respectful way. The park rangers and the landowners and the local
    businesses have made it so that people from all over the world can come
    here and use this place. Because of wise stewardship, this park has
    flourished. This is good for all of us, to understand what works.
        You see, Gale mentioned we've got 388
    national park areas. Now, this includes historic sites and battlefields
    and recreation areas and monuments and shores. But all of them are a
    point of pride for the local communities surrounding the particular
    site, and they need to be a point of pride for our country as well. And
    after all, our park system is the crown jewel of America's recreation
    system.
        In the past, though, the sites have really, in some cases, been
    ignored. And that's the reality, and that's the truth. For many years,
    our Federal Government did not even have the basic information it needed
    to set priorities about what should be repaired or not repaired, because
    we had a haphazard system of dealing with the people's asset. We just
    kind of--as we say down there, catch as catch can, without a national
    strategy to maintain this incredibly important asset.
        And so I've set out to do something about it. And the first thing
    we've got to do is, we've got to get a commitment from the appropriators
    in Congress to spend enough money to maintain our parks. And so I'm
    calling on Congress to spend $5 billion over the next 5 years. I made
    that call 2 years ago. I've said, ``If you're interested in helping us
    maintain the park system, put some money out there so that we can
    actually do the job.'' And Congress responded for the last 2 years by
    appropriating $1.8 billion to meet the needs to make sure our parks are
    modernized and maintained and get the needed repairs to make the parks
    accessible to the people. In this year's budget, this year's request, I
    put in $1.1 billion and then plan on asking 2.2 total for '05 and '06,
    so that we spend $5 billion on maintenance projects and repair projects
    in the park system all across the country.
        And I expect Congress to respond. We've got a national asset that in
    some cases needs needed repairs, and now is the time to get after it on
    behalf of the American people. This is a problem, and now let's address
    the problem. And I think they'll respond.
        In the first 2 years in my administration, under Gale and Fran's leadership,
    we've undertaken 900 park maintenance projects, and that's a good start.
    We're making progress. We'll do another 500 this year and 400 next year.
    Slowly but surely, we're beginning to deal with the backlog of much
    needed maintenance.
        And these are projects that--I'll talk about some of them we're
    doing here, under Woody's supervision, but for
    example, there's repairs to a visitors center at Cape Cod National
    Seashore. I mean, when visitors show up for the Cape Cod National
    Seashore and its beauty, we want there to be a visitors center that's
    worth going into. We want the toilets to flush. [Laughter] We want the
    potholes to be taken out of

    [[Page 1018]]

    the parking lot. Whatever the problem is, we need to address it so that
    the people, when it comes to using their own park, are able to do so in
    a comfortable way.
        We've got a new wastewater system being developed at Yellowstone
    National Park, and that's important. We've got a new lighting and
    electrical systems on the U.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. At the
    Redwood National Park, we're removing abandoned roads to protect the
    park and to improve the watershed. There are just practical things that
    need to be done on a park-by-park basis in order to do our job on behalf
    of the American people.
        In order to have a strategy, we felt it was important to develop a
    national system to take a national inventory so you can set priorities.
    If the information is scattered and haphazard, you'll have a haphazard
    and scattered response to a problem. And so I tasked Gale and Fran with the idea of
    setting up a national database that will track maintenance needs on a
    asset-by-asset basis. And so the Interior Department and the parks
    department have tasked the park superintendents to conduct an inventory
    of buildings and trails and monument roads and assets and let us know
    the condition on a park-by-park basis. And the data will be centralized
    in Washington. So far, 384 out of the 388 park superintendents have
    responded. We're chasing down the other four--[laughter]--to make sure
    we get inventories.
        And then when you get an assessment of what is needed, we can set
    priorities. And when you set priorities, it is more likely that the $5
    billion will be spent wisely on behalf of the American people to
    maintain their park system.
        In the Santa Monica Mountains, Woody was
    telling me that--first of all, he was one of the first to apply to the
    system, first to input into the system. He determined that the buildings
    were in good shape but the trails were eroded and needed work. He sent
    out a priority list to Washington, DC. I think we've sent back $2.4
    million of trail maintenance money, if I'm not mistaken, which has
    improved a lot of the trails for the people who use the trails.
        And as importantly, you've made it possible for people to see the
    beauty of the land, to access the beauty without destroying the land.
    The more modern the trail system, the more repaired our trail system is,
    the less likely it is that people will trample the beauty--that they'll
    stay on the trails, and so you'll be able to have people take wonderful
    hikes or bike rides throughout this beautiful countryside without the
    fear of damaging the countryside.
        Woody accessed the system; he put out a
    plan; and the Government responded. And we expect other park
    superintendents to do so. And when Congress appropriates the money,
    which I'm confident they will, particularly after this moment--
    [laughter]--that we'll better spend the money on behalf of the people.
        As Woody said, for the first time, we now
    have a system that moves us from reactive to proactive, and that's how
    we're able to track real improvements. And that's what we're going to be
    with America's park system: We're going to be proactive and doing what's
    right on behalf of the American people.
        I mentioned the volunteers that make these parks work--and
    particularly, this park work. And I ran into some folks from Woodrow
    Wilson East High School in Los Angeles. Stan is
    with us. Stan is a teacher. Thank you, Stan, for being a teacher. Rosa
    Gomez and Susan Lam and
    Denise Sanchez are with us as well. Thank you
    all for coming. I see other students from Woodrow Wilson, as well, or
    Wilson--the Wilson Mules, I take it. [Laughter] But we were repairing
    the trails together. By the way, the three ladies I just mentioned are
    high school grads. They're going to college. A couple of them are the
    first time anybody in their family has ever gone to college, which is
    fabulous.

    [[Page 1019]]

        But I want to thank them for coming out and working hard on the
    trails. It's a--it's got to be a fantastic educational experience to get
    out in this beautiful part of our country and put something back into
    the system. After all, that's really what makes America great, when
    people realize that patriotism means serving something greater than
    yourself, serving the country you love, doing your part to make sure
    that the community in which you live is as good as it can possibly be,
    loving a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself. Whether it
    be maintaining park roads or helping somebody who hurts, helping
    somebody who's addicted, we can all make a difference in changing our
    country.
        And that's what the Harmans are doing. I ran into Terry and Holly Harman. Terry and
    Holly challenged me to a 6-mile run. [Laughter] I took one look at them;
    I said, ``No thanks.'' [Laughter] But the Harmans are here. They love to
    use the park. They ride their bikes; they run. They've enjoyed this park
    for a lot of years, and part of their enjoyment is to make it a better
    place for other people. I want to tell you what Terry said. He said
    volunteering here has helped him feel ownership for the park. You're
    kind of protective. You realize, in his words, ``This is my park too.''
        Well, it is your park. It's the park of every person who lives in
    America, and we've got to remember that. We're stewards of the people
    land. We have an obligation to leave this park a better place than when
    we found it. And there's no doubt in my mind, thanks to the hard work of
    the park employees, to the volunteers who come, thanks to a Congress
    that recognizes that we need to maintain this incredibly important asset
    for our country, we'll do our job.
        Thanks for coming. May God continue to bless our country.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:17 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Stan Katase, teacher, Woodrow Wilson High School.