20 



I am not as enamored with the local land controls and so forth 

 as Mr. Gilchrest may be, because I have seen too many — the depth 

 of dumb cannot be fathomed in government, so I am not as en- 

 thused with that part. 



But I am enthused about this, Mr. Chairman, and I am going 

 home and read some more. Heavens. 



Mr. Studds. From now on, we will have every meeting opened 

 by the gentleman from Maryland. 



The gentlewoman from Arkansas. 



Ms. Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am very supportive 

 of what we have seen in results. I have in the past year in my dis- 

 trict in Arkansas had over 3,000 acres in the historic venture 

 projects which I think have been remarkably successful. 



I also now have the largest timber wetland in North America in 

 my district, so I am very interested, and we are pleased to have 

 the Secretary here with us to discuss it as we move ahead. We 

 have seen tremendous success, and we certainly have room to 

 make some improvements and look at some different ways we can 

 integrate with areas like mine, which are the duck and rice cap- 

 itals of the world, to utilize the existing wetlands to preserve new 

 ones, and thank the Secretary for his interest and involvement. 



Mr. Studds. Mr. Secretary, once again your magic has spread 

 tranquility and harmony in the room. I think this is the best time 

 for you to slip quietly out. 



Secretary Babbitt. Mr. Chairman, Committee members, Mr. 

 Taylor, I know you dissent slightly from that characterization, and 

 I accept that, but in that spirit I appreciate the chance to work 

 with all of you Committee members, and if any of you have written 

 questions or comments, I would be happy to follow up and respond. 



Mr. Studds. As you know, sir, you too always have a chair of 

 honor in the room. Thank you very much. 



Secretary Babbitt. Thank you. 



Mr. Studds. We will go next to our final panel of four, if you will 

 all come up. 



I want to welcome the members of the panel. I alert you, you vet- 

 erans of the process, we are going to ask you to confine your oral 

 testimonies to no more than five minutes. We know that is brutally 

 unfair and we have an even more brutal way of enforcing it, as I 

 think you know. 



Your written testimony will appear in full in the record, and his- 

 torians will never know what you said and what you did not. And 

 what we do ask you to do is to respect the lights, two of which are 

 working. When the green light goes off and the yellow comes on — 

 but it will not — there is one minute left. And when the red light 

 is on, it means you have concluded. We will apply the same thing 

 to the members of the Committee in their questioning period. 



We will take you in the order in which you appear on the witness 

 list beginning with Mr. Gary Taylor speaking for the International 

 Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Mr. Taylor. 



