15 



with in their Uves. They are attacked by insects, they are eaten by 

 various creatures. They have to compete with other plants around 

 them. 



What they have done is to create chemicals. They have created 

 thousands and thousands of chemicals which serve those plants, to 

 compete. They are tiny chemical factories. 



Many of the new chemicals that we have heard about today have 

 come from recent plant discoveries. I believe there are many more 

 of these, and I believe that it is really important for us to recognize 

 that and conserve that resource in any way we can. I think the En- 

 dangered Species Act has a lot of potential for doing that. 



I thank you very much for allowing me to come here today. 



Mr. Studds. Thank you very much. 



[The statement of Ms. McMahan can be found at the end of the 

 hearing.] 



Mr. Studds. This is a remarkable panel. I really appreciate your 

 time. . 



Let me observe at the outset that we may find our time limited 

 because of events on the Floor which will call us away. As you 

 probably all know, and if you don't know you should, the funda- 

 mental statute of the Endangered Species Act is in serious trouble 



here. , t-.i j • 



Some of you may have observed the debate on the Floor during 

 the National Biological Survey authorizing legislation a few weeks 

 ago. It engendered and elicited extraordinary amounts of emotion 

 on the face of it far beyond anything to be justified by the relative- 

 ly modest provisions of the National Biological Survey legislation. 

 That is just a hint of the emotion to come, if and when we put on 

 that Floor the Endangered Species Act or any other major environ- 

 mental statute— Clean Water Act, Wetlands Provisions, et cetera. 



Just in case the time runs out without my having been able to 

 say this, I would just like to begin with a plea to each of you from 

 whatever segment of the country you come, both professionally and 

 geographically, if this subject is as important as you say it is— and 

 I happen to agree with you that it is— it behooves each of us in our 

 own way to convey that to those who speak for us and represent 

 us. 



Absent some extraordinary countervailing pressures to do the 

 right thing here, we are quite likely to do other than the right 

 thing when push comes to shove. 



It is a challenge for those of you whose perspective is as yours, to 

 convey that to Members of Congress who don't always have the 

 luxury of taking the longer view and the greater perspective, to 

 put it politely. So please think of that as a plea and as a charge. 



I notice the gentleman from North Carolina is gone. If he were 

 here, I know he would ask something like this. These are some of 

 the quandaries that we face here. 



Supposing someone has owned a piece of land for a great many 

 years and is planning to subdivide it in his retirement years to 

 produce income for his kids' college education or maybe his own re- 

 tirement. Supposing we discovered, just as he is about to sell some 

 of that property which he has held and planned for a lifetime for 

 his own benefit and that of his children, that the last remaining 

 population of an endangered plant which is very promising as a 



