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As a member of the Council, it is important to note that we have 

 nine members of the Council that come from very different back- 

 grounds but there is unanimous support for H.R. 4308. We feel 

 strongly about extending the program at least through 2000 and 

 beyond. We also feel strongly about additional resources for the 

 program. We are pleased to fully support H.R. 4308 as introduced 

 by Congressmen Dingell, Weldon, Studds, and Fields. 



I want to talk a little about the Act from the perspective of The 

 Nature Conservancy. As I stated, it is a program we very strongly 

 endorse for a couple of reasons. There is significant overlap be- 

 tween the Conservancy's mission and the mission of the Act. 



Second, the Act puts a very strong emphasis on partnerships be- 

 tween public agencies and the private sector and this has become 

 the heart of The Nature Conservancy program seeking out con- 

 servation partnerships. 



At the Conservancy, we have a saying, a good partner brings 

 money to the table, a great partner brings money and forces other 

 people to bring money to the table. And by that standard, the Act 

 is probably one of the best partners ever. I think I used that when 

 talking about Brother Eno's program at the Fish and Wildlife 

 Foundation, and we feel very strongly about that program, too. 



We have been involved with the program since the beginning. 

 The Conservancy has been grantee in 17 projects in 12 different 

 States. These 17 projects have received more than $10 million of 

 Act funds to on-the-ground conservation; and working between the 

 Conservancy and other partners, we identified another $25 million 

 for these projects. 



To give you a couple of brief examples. One of them is the Mad 

 Island Marsh project located in Matagorda County, Texas. This 

 project involves partnerships between The Nature Conservancy, 

 the Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, the Council, of 

 course, private landowners, Dow Chemical, the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, EPA, and on and on. This is a program to plot and restore 

 the critical salt water marsh system. 



The goal is to protect over 9,000 acres, and to date this particular 

 project has protected over 7,000 acres. The Act has provided ap- 

 proximately $1.7 million for this project and partners have identi- 

 fied over $2.2 million. Of that is a $1 million land gift from a Mr. 

 Clive Reynolds, which is one of the most significant land gifts that 

 have gone into this program. 



Another project, which was mentioned briefly by Congressman 

 Dingell, is the Llano Seco Rancho. This project is also known as the 

 Parrot Ranch. In this project, the Conservancy and its partners, 

 once again the Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the California Wild- 

 Hfe Conservation Board, California Department of Fish and Game, 

 and many others, have protected over 14,000 acres with $3 million 

 of Act funds that went into this project and $10.6 million in part- 

 nerships dollars, another great example of the leverage of this par- 

 ticular program. 



We would like to make one additional recommendation to the 

 legislation, and that goes to what Secretary Babbitt mentioned con- 

 cerning using the cash contributions from our Mexican partners as 

 a qualifying match for the program. The Conservancy does feel 

 very strongly about building self-sufficiency with our partners in 



