17 



ments are exercising the leadership to actually go out to voters and 

 put bond issues up for this kind of habitat and open space acquisi- 

 tion, I think increasingly that is a criterion that we ought to pay 

 special attention to. 



Mr. Weldon. I see my time is up, but just in 



Mr. Studds. Actually the yellow light does not work. I hate to 

 tell you this, but you have another minute. 



Mr. Weldon. That is fantastic. I would agree, Mr. Secretary, 

 with all the controversy we have in Washington with the whole 

 wetlands and takings issue, and you have been before our Commit- 

 tee in the past in testifying on wetlands legislation. 



I think we sometimes miss the mark because here is a golden op- 

 portunity if we can provide incentives to get local governments to 

 establish their own land use control patterns using the kinds of cri- 

 teria that we feel are important. We will not have the kind of prob- 

 lems that we had up in the Northwest or perhaps down in Texas, 

 because local officials will be involved in that process and will be 

 fully considering the kinds of things that we feel are important 

 here. This program does that. 



Mr. Studds. The gentleman from Maryland. 



Mr. Weldon. Yield back my 80 seconds. 



Mr. Gilchrest. Do I have your time? 



Mr. Weldon. You have my 80 seconds, if the Chair wishes. 



Mr. Gilchrest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Welcome to the Committee, Mr. Secretary. First, I want to echo 

 what Mr. Weldon is saying, because any conservation project, I 

 think, can be extraordinarily successful when various groups. Fed- 

 eral, local and State organizations, public and private, are involved 

 in the initial discussion of land use planning, managed growth, and 

 zoning, the whole ball of wax. 



This is a program that has been pretty successful in the State 

 of Maryland, and there are a number of areas that we have pur- 

 chased through this grant money. 



I have three questions that are extraordinarily complex. It would 

 take a great deal of time to answer, but I would like just the 

 briefest of responses from you, and I apologize for the questions, 

 but I am curious about them. 



Mr. Studds. One of them does not have to do with the wetness 

 of light? 



Mr. Gilchrest. I got an answer on that, Mr. Chairman. They 

 said light gets wet and the proof of that is a rainbow. So whether 

 that is a correct — someone sent me that from the University of 

 Michigan after we asked that. I think it came to your office and 

 you sent it to my office. You may not have seen it, but it was 



Mr. Studds. I simply wanted to alert the Secretary that the last 

 time we got this kind of warning about questions from the gen- 

 tleman, it was the question, "Can light get wet?" 



Secretary Babbitt. Well, I subscribe to his answer, of course, and 

 I would point to the deluge as the ultimate biblical parable and 

 metaphor for the biodiversity which is at the heart of the work of 

 this Committee. 



Mr. Gilchrest. Actually, that is one of my first questions, 

 biodiversity. 



