27 



Mr. Studds. Again, probably a dumb question, but I sense a lit- 

 tle bit, if not tension, not unanimity on whether the Act needs to 

 be broadened in its focus. Anyone ever heard of the program called 

 Coastal America? Three out of four of you. 



Just coincidentally a few days ago I was on Cape Cod dedicating, 

 with six Federal agencies, God help us all, and two State agencies, 

 and God knows how many local ones, a partnership for the restora- 

 tion of a coastal salt marsh wetland and, lo and behold, I don't 

 think anybody there had ever heard of this program, and I am not 

 at all sure the people on this program had heard of that program, 

 the Coastal America program. 



It was a Bush initiative, but nonetheless appears to be sound. 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you. 



Mr. Studds. And also working. And in the most astonishing little 

 ceremony we, in fact, had six Federal agencies and two State agen- 

 cies sign as partners in an effort to restore a salt marsh wetland 

 which had been drained. 



I don't know whether that would have qualified under this pro- 

 gram or not, but am I touching upon some kind of disagreement 

 here as to whether or not the Act is sufficiently broad in its focus? 



Mr. Eno. You are touching upon the Act's thrust of my state- 

 ment, which is I think the Act and its administrators and its Coun- 

 cil need to be more aggressive in reaching out to others working 

 in this field, like Coastal America. 



There are dozens of other local institutions. And I think we are 

 only scratching the surface of participants we can find. 



Mr. Studds. Anyone else want to speak to that? 



Mr. Sutherland. It is funny you should bring Coastal America 

 up. Ducks Unlimited has a meeting scheduled with those folks less 

 than two weeks from now, here in town. We have a Black Water 

 River project on the coast of South Carolina that they are inter- 

 ested in, and one of the things we intend to talk with them about 

 at that meeting is this very program. So, yes, it is a very timely 

 question. 



Mr. Gary Taylor. Just simply to comment, Mr. Chairman, that 

 I think your observation points out a need for all of us in the con- 

 servation community to do a better job of making available to pri- 

 vate citizens and others the vast array of programs already avail- 

 able at the Federal, State, and local level for conservation of wet- 

 lands and other habitats. 



Many of the resource managers that visit private landowners for 

 various purposes, if they had a menu of incentive programs that 

 were available, I think we could all facilitate meeting our conserva- 

 tion objectives better and with more cooperation with private land- 

 owners than we do now. 



Mr. Studds. I was struck by the similarity. In fact, almost iden- 

 tity of language between what you folks talking about this program 

 had said and what I heard standing on a knoll overlooking the 

 Cape Cod Canal talking about partnerships for the preservation of 

 wetlands. Same thing if I speak English. It is arguable after all the 

 years I have been here. Mr. Dennis. 



Mr. Dennis. I don't know as much about the program as I 

 should. I only know about it because I have inlaws who live on 



