10 



language that we have suggested with regard to the period or how 

 it would be achieved is in the basic legislation. 



I want to make it very clear I have no particular pride of author- 

 ship of this. I always do these things very carefully in consultation 

 with Mr. Studds, the Chairman, because he is not only a valued 

 member of this Committee but he is also a valuable member of the 

 Committee on Energy and Commerce, and I do not want to do any- 

 thing which would denigrate this Committee for which I have a 

 very special respect and affection. I served here for better than 20 

 years and they were, quite honestly, the happiest and best 20 years 

 of my service in the Congress. 



So I do not appear here to tell you anything as to how you should 

 use your expertise. You are fully capable of addressing that without 

 a great deal of advice from me. My only counsel would be that you 

 should strive as best you might to try to get the periods of the 

 leases and the easements as long as you can so as to get the great- 

 est value for the dollar spent. 



Mr. Saxton. I have one other question and it is quite general in 

 nature. I have had a great deal of experience back in New Jersey 

 trying to preserve wetlands through an acquisition program in an 

 area that is named after my predecessor, your friend, Ed Forsythe. 



Mr. DiNGELL. He was a great member of this Subcommittee, 

 serving as a member of the Subcommittee when I was the Chair- 

 man, and left a great record of accomplishment in this area. 



Mr. Saxton. Yes, sir. And you will be pleased to know the For- 

 sythe Refuge is currently undergoing an expansion of some 8,000 

 acres of expanded wetlands and uplands that are intended to pro- 

 tect the wetlands, that is, the acquisition is intended to protect the 

 wetlands. 



But you said something that was very interesting and I thmk 

 right to the point and that is as much as we would like to expand 

 the Forsythes across the country through acquisition programs, we 

 do not have the resources to do the kinds of expansions and acqui- 

 sitions that we would like to do and, therefore, we have to find 

 other ways to protect wetlands and the surrounding areas, and 

 that is a topic of a lot of discussion not only in this room but 

 throughout the Congress on the issue of wetlands and how to pro- 

 tect them. And I am just wondering if you would care to share 

 some of your thoughts with regard to how we should proceed to do 



that. , 1 J J 



Mr. DiNGELL. Well, of course, I always love to buy the lands, and 

 I am sure Mr. Weldon feels the same way. We try to buy the lands 

 in fee, because once we have them, we can hold them and there is 

 no question about the administration. We do not find an expiration 

 date coming on the end. 



But in point of fact, that approach leads to several problems, ihe 

 first is you do not have the money which you have to have to do 

 that; and the second of which is there are a lot of areas where you 

 run into sensitivities which you have to address. One of which 

 being, for example, you are trying to do it in Canada or Mexico and 

 they do not like the idea of Uncle Sam going up there or coming 

 down there and telling them how to run their affairs. So that is a 

 major problem. 



