15 



Mr. Saxton. Mr. Secretary, in thanking you for being here to 

 share your thoughts with us this morning, I would just Uke to ask 

 you a related question, and it has to do with our acquisition pro- 

 grams, which work quite well when we have the resources to it. 

 But when we acquire property under the programs that we are all 

 familiar with, one of the first things that happens when the acqui- 

 sition actually takes place, there is a period of time which ranges 

 from maybe a year or so to maybe several years during which a 

 management plan is drafted and implemented for that particular 

 piece of property. And during that time, all historic human uses 

 are discontinued temporarily until the management plan goes into 

 effect, and when the management plan goes into effect, some of 

 those historic uses, such as hunting, bird watching, whatever other 

 uses there are, may be restored or maybe they will not. 



It always seemed to me that we make it very difficult for our- 

 selves in having a policy which is apparently statutory which says 

 that refuges have to be closed upon acquisition until the manage- 

 ment plan is adopted. As Chairman Dingell pointed out, there are 

 certain values that we are trying to protect and those values may 

 be X, Y, and Z on actual wetlands, and they may be quite different 

 on uplands that we acquire to protect the wetlands. 



So I am just interested in your thoughts on this issue as to what 

 we might do, not necessarily in this Act but perhaps when we reau- 

 thorize other pieces of legislation. 



Secretary Babbitt. I would think a little more flexibility would 

 be helpful here. Because if you are acquiring a piece of habitat 

 which has been subject to human use and is still in good shape, 

 it seems to me that it is not obvious in every case you need to have 

 this sharp break. 



It would seem to be reasonable to invent a regulation or statu- 

 tory language which had at least the flexibility to say we will mod- 

 ify the human uses on the landscape to the extent that it appears 

 to be genuinely necessary to preserve; to cross this bridge period, 

 the values you seek, from having the ultimate management plan. 

 I would certainly support that. 



Mr. Saxton. Thank you. 



Mr. Studds. The gentleman from Pennsylvania. 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



And, Mr. Secretary, let me thank you for coming in today, also. 

 Not just as the Secretary but as one of the seven commissioners on 

 the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission. I think your pres- 

 ence today is a strong signal of the importance the Administration 

 places on reauthorizing the North American Wetlands Conserva- 

 tion Fund. 



I notice in your testimony that you mention that there are a 

 number of worthy projects we were not able to fund through the 

 fund due to a lack of Federal funding in fiscal year 1994. In fact, 

 you said 26 proposals for which partners had committed $21 mil- 

 lion in matching funds. And as you know, in this legislation we are 

 going to significantly increase the authorization to, in the next fis- 

 cal year, 1995 and 1996, $20 million and in fiscal year 1997 and 

 1998, $30 million. 



