BANQUET ADDRESS 



Honorable Robert L. Herbst 



Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior, 

 Fish, Wildlife and Parks 



I always enjoy coming to Texas 

 and often recall the first time I 

 made a speech here. I was commis- 

 sioner of Natural Resources in Min- 

 nesota, and, before the meeting, was 

 complaining about my problems to a 

 group I had just met. I said, "I've 

 got 4,000 employees, a yearly payroll 

 of 189 million dollars, and I oversee 

 57 million acres of land. What a 

 headache. " 



One of the listeners, a wind- 

 burned Texan, said, "Son, I can 

 understand your complaints, your 

 outfit is almost as big as my 

 ranch. " 



It was that same night after 

 my speech that I knew I had said 

 something to offend. As I sat down 

 at my seat on the dais, a brawny 

 cowboy pulled a chair up next to me 

 and placed his six-shooter on the 

 table. I must have turned a little 

 pale, because he said, "Don't worry 

 ain't nuthin' gonna happen to you. 

 We'd just like to get the guy who 

 invited you here." 



Well, I hope that won't be the 

 case tonight, but I am prepared to 

 take my chances because your sym- 

 posium subject is tremendously im- 

 portant and because what government 

 does and has done has great impact 

 on the water, coastline, and estu- 

 aries of America. 



For those of us concerned with 

 the preservation and conservation 

 of our national, natural resources, 

 the decade of the seventies was an 



extraordinary one--one marked by 

 great public education, interest, 

 and support. And because that pub- 

 lic support was reflected in a 

 series of legislative landmarks and 

 by many positive executive and ad- 

 ministrative acts at state and Fe- 

 deral levels, we look back with 

 great pleasure and satisfaction on 

 an Environmental Decade. 



Yet, for all of that, while 

 estuarine concerns were not totally 

 ignored, they were not nearly as 

 central a concern as we might have 

 hoped. You, however, persisted in 

 your research and your application 

 of existing knowledge and I salute 

 you for that. 



You have known what many others 

 seem to have ignored: that many of 

 our estuaries are producing less 

 and show less diversity than in the 

 past--seriously ill, if not slowly 

 dying. 



You know that estuaries help 

 feed a hungry world and that their 

 destruction leads to certain and 

 inevitable misery. You know that 

 we cannot take the most productive 

 ecosystems in the world--the natural 

 factories where fresh water and salt 

 water mix--the production sites, if 

 you will, of immense populations of 

 commercially valuable shellfish, 

 crabs, and finfish, treat them in- 

 differently and casually and expect 

 to survive well. You know that we 

 cannot drain, fill, pollute, or 

 destroy estuaries in the name of 

 progress or as a simple sin of greed 



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