THE WHITE
HOUSE
Office of the Press
Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For
Immediate Release
October 13,
1999
REMARKS BY THE
PRESIDENT
AT "ROADLESS" LANDS
EVENT
Reddish Knob
Overlook
George Washington and Jefferson National
Forest
Virginia
1:20 P.M.
EDT
THE
PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Peter Pinchot, Secretary Glickman,
Under Secretary Lyons. I also want to acknowledge Mike Dombeck, the Chief
of the Forest Service; and George Frampton, the Chair of the Council on
Environmental Quality.
There are many, many things I'd like to say today, but before I begin, there has
been -- there was a development in the news today that I need to make a comment
on, because I believe this is my only opportunity to see the press and, through
them, speak to the American
people.
So I would
like to just take a moment to note that after years of denial and deception, the
Philip Morris Company has admitted that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer and
other diseases. This formal acknowledgement comes far too late, but still
we must all welcome it. It can be the beginning of clearing the
air.
It certainly
makes clear, as I've said for years, that the tobacco companies should answer
for their actions in court. They should stop marketing their products to
children. And certainly, they should do much more to reduce youth
smoking.
So this is a
good day for the cause of public health and our children in America.
(Applause.)
Now, Peter
talked about his grandfather and Theodore Roosevelt. One of my proudest
possessions -- some of you know I collect old books about America. I just
finished reading a fascinating account by Frances Perkins, the first woman to
serve in the Cabinet, who was President
Franklin Roosevelt's Labor Secretary
during his entire tenure -- about her 35-year relationship with Roosevelt.
One of my proudest old American books is a first printing of the proceedings of
the very first Governors Conference, held at the invitation of Theodore
Roosevelt in 1908. The subject was the conservation of America's natural
resources.
In my private dining room at the White House I have a picture of Theodore
Roosevelt and all those governors, signed by all the governors with whom I
served in 1992, when I was elected President. That first Governor's
Conference remains one of the most important ever held in the
White
House. So much of what we've done as a nation to conserve our
natural
resources extends from that day. Peter's grandfather was a
guiding
spirit behind that
conference.
Theodore
Roosevelt, himself, said of Gifford Pinchot, "If it
hadn't been for him, this
conference neither would have, nor could have,
been called." Gifford
Pinchot used to say that "we must prefer results to
routine." I like
that a lot. (Laughter.) And let me say that, in my
view, no one
illustrates that principle in our public life today better
than Mike Dombeck,
who has done such a remarkable job of returning the
Forest Service to the
vision of stewardship on which it was founded, And I
thank you,
sir. Thank you.
(Applause.)
A century
ago, when Mr. Pinchot was first dreaming up his plan to
protect our forests,
this vista looked very different than what we see
today. In fact, it
was more wasteland than forest. According to one
eyewitness -- and I
quote -- "weather-white ghosts of trees stood on the
desolate slopes as a
pitiful, battle-scared fragment of the glory that was
once a virgin
forest." Not only were the slopes nearly bare, tanneries and
dye plants
had poisoned the lakes and the mountain streams. The deer and
black
bear and turkey nearly were wiped out. The land and water were
so
thoroughly abused that most people thought the area had no value at
all.
I know that they
don't agree with that now because we have so
many of the fine local officials
from this area show up here today. I
thank them for their presence and
they can be proud of what they
represent.
Visionaries
like Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, the
other men and women of the
Forest Service who have cared for this land
since 1917, made those dark
descriptions a part of history. Nowadays,
hundreds of thousands of
visitors come here every year to hike, swim, bike,
hunt, fish, or just to
breathe the fresh air and take in the beautiful
sights. The land that
once no one wanted is now a thriving forest everyone
can
enjoy.
This kind of
land has been important to me since I was a boy,
where I learned by walking
the Ozark and Quachita National Forests of my
home state that national
forests are more than a source of timber, they are
places of renewal of the
human spirit and our natural environment. At the
dawn of the new
century we have the opportunity to act on behalf of these
forests in a way
that honors the vision of our forbears, Roosevelt
and
Pinchot.
Within
our national forests there are large parcels of land that
don't contain roads
of any kind and, in most cases, never have. From the
beautiful stretch
of the Alleghenys that we see here to the old-growth
canyonlands of Tahoe
National Forest, these areas represent some of the
last, best, unprotected
wildland anywhere in our nation. They offer
unparalleled opportunities
for hikers, hunters and anglers. They're
absolutely critical to the
survival of many endangered species, as you have
just
heard.
And I think
it's worth pointing out they are also very often a
source of clean and fresh
water for countless communities. They are,
therefore, our treasured
inheritance.
Today, we
launch one of the largest land preservation efforts in
America's history to
protect these priceless, back-country lands. The
Forest Service will
prepare a detailed analysis of how best to preserve our
forests' large
roadless areas, and then present a formal proposal to do
just that. The
Forest Service will also determine whether similar
protection is warranted
for smaller roadless areas that have not yet
been
surveyed.
Through this action, we will protect more than 40 million acres,
20 percent
of the total forest land in America in the national forests --
(applause) --
from activities, such as new road construction which would
degrade the
land. We will ensure that our grandchildren will be able to
hike up to
this peak, that others like it across the country will also
offer the same
opportunities. We will assure that when they get to the top
they'll be
able to look out on valleys like this, just as beautiful then as
they are
now.
We will live up
to the challenge Theodore Roosevelt laid down a
century ago to leave this
land even a better land for our descendants than
it is for
us.
It is very
important to point out that we are not trying to turn
the national forests
into museums. Even as we strengthen protections, the
majority of our
forests will continue to be responsibly managed for
sustainable timber
production and other activities. We are, once again,
determined to
prove that environmental protection and economic growth can,
and must, go
hand in hand.
Let me
give you an example, because I've seen a lot of people
already saying a lot
of terrible things about what I'm doing today, and how
it is going to end the
world as we know it. (Laughter.) This initiative
should have
almost no effect on timber supply. Only five percent of our
country's
timber comes from the national forests. Less than five percent
of the
national forests' timber is now being cut in roadless areas. We
can
easily adjust our federal timber program to replace five percent of
five
percent, but we can never replace what we might destroy if we don't
protect
these 40 million acres.
(Applause.)
As the
previous speaker said, today's action is the latest step
taken under the
administration of Vice President Gore and me to expand our
children's natural
treasures. Over the past six and a half years, we've
protected millions
of acres, from the Yellowstone to the Everglades, from
the ancient redwoods
of Headwaters to the red rock canyons of Utah. We're
working now to
save New Mexico's spectacular Baca
Ranch.
As Secretary
Babbitt has said many times, our administration has
now protected more land
than any in the history of the country except those
of Franklin and Theodore
Roosevelt.
I have also
proposed an unprecedented $1-billion Lands Legacy
Initiative, with permanent
funding over the years to guarantee for the
first time ever a continuing fund
for protecting and restoring precious
lands across America. This
initiative represents the largest investment in
protecting our green and open
spaces since President Theodore Roosevelt set
our nation on this path nearly
a century ago. It would allow us to save
Civil War battlefields, remote
stretches of the historic Lewis and Clark
Trail, nearly half a million acres
in California desert parks and
wilderness areas. It will also allow us
to meet the stewardship challenges
of the new century by helping communities
save small but sacred spaces
closer to
home.
Unfortunately,
this Congress seems intent on walking away from
this opportunity.
They're trying to slash Lands Legacy funding by a full
two-thirds this year
alone, with no action at all to ensure permanent
funding in the years
ahead. This is not an isolated case, unfortunately.
Once again, the
leaders of the Republican majority are polluting our
spending bills with
special interest riders that would promote overcutting
in our forests, allow
mining companies to dump more toxic waste on public
land, and give a huge
windfall to companies producing oil on federal
lands.
I have vetoed
such bills before because they were loaded up with
anti-environmental
riders. If necessary, I will do so again.
(Applause.)
So, as
Congress completes its work on the Interior bill, again I
ask the leadership
to send me a clean bill that adequately funds the Lands
Legacy Initiative and
other priorities. But let me be clear, if the
Interior bill lands on my
desk looking like it does now, I will give it a
good environmental response
-- I will send it straight back to the
recycling bin. (Laughter and
applause.)
Ever since
that first Governors Conference back in 1908,
conservation has been a cause
important enough to Americans to transcend
party lines. I hope,
somehow, we can make it a bipartisan -- even a
nonpartisan -- issue
again. Theodore Roosevelt was a great Republican
President.
Franklin Roosevelt was a great Democratic President. President
Nixon
signed a bill creating the Environmental Protection Agency. Over
and
over again in the last seven years in which I have had the honor to
serve
as President, I have worked with people who were both Democrats
and
Republicans on conservation
issues.
Again I have
the feeling that this is not a partisan issue
anywhere but Washington, D.C.,
and perhaps in a few other places throughout
the country. We can't
afford that.
When I
was a boy growing up in my hometown, it was in a national
park, and I could
never be in the downtown of my hometown, which was a big
city by Arkansas
standards -- 35,000 people -- that even if you were
anywhere downtown, you
weren't more than five minutes walk from the
woods.
I know what
this can mean to our children and our future. When I
was governor, I
was proud that, after leaving office after 12 years, we had
-- a higher
percentage of our land in Arkansas was timberland than it was
on the day that
I took office, for the first time. And we always did this
across party
lines. No state was more active in using the Nature
Conservancy to buy
land and set it aside, and we always did it across
party
lines.
When
people walk through these woods and run into one another,
they may talk a lot
of things, but I'll bet you very few of them say, are
you a Republican or a
Democrat. I'll bet you've never asked anybody that
on a mountain
trail.
We want this
for our children forever. And it is important that
we set a good
example. Earlier, Mr. Pinchot talked about the deterioration
of the
rain forests and the loss of biodiversity around the globe. If we
want
to help other people meet those challenges, and the even larger
challenge of
climate change, we have to set a good example. We have the
wealth and
security to do it. We also have no excuse, because now we have
the
scientific knowledge and the technical means to grow the economy while
we
improve the
environment.
It is no
longer necessary to grow a modern economy by destroying
natural resources and
putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
In fact, we can create
more jobs by following a responsible path to
sustainable
development.
So I hope
this day will be important not only for our forestland,
but the preservation
of fresh water and biodiversity and recreational
opportunities. I hope
it will be the first step in America resuming a path
of responsible
leadership toward the environmental future we will
increasingly share with
our neighbors all across the globe. And I hope all
of you will always
be very proud of the role you have played in this
special
day.
Thank you very
much.
(Applause.)
END 1:42 P.M.
EDT