foundation of the protection of our fish and wildlife and natural re- 

 sources. 



You, Mr. Chairman, and the members of this Subcommittee, 

 have provided extraordinary leadership, wisdom, and guidance in 

 carrying forward those traditions, and I hope you are proud of what 

 you do because you have every reason to feel a particular reverence 

 not only for what you are protecting but also the work which you 

 have done. And the country and the Nation and those who will 

 come after us will have a particular reason to be grateful to you 

 for what it is you have done. 



I hope that you will be able to continue the protection of the 

 basic statutes which are now in the jurisdiction of this Subcommit- 

 tee and the Committee, and also that you will continue the great 

 tradition of writing sound conservation legislation, including the re- 

 enactment of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. 



As I mentioned, one of the highlights of my career has been serv- 

 ing on the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, and serving 

 there with my friend, Mr. Weldon, and we have found over the 

 years in serving there that the North American Wetlands Con- 

 servation Act itself, the one which spends the money for acquiring 

 refuges, is a good proposal. But the demands of the resources we 

 are trying to protect far exceeds the resources we can put in. And 

 so, as a result, a number of steps have been taken over the years 

 to try to press refuge status on lands not necessarily acquired by 

 migratory bird moneys to procure easements. 



And as Mr. Weldon can tell you, we have tried from time to time, 

 and Mr. Conte and I, and before that Mr. Saylor, who was from 

 your State, who I am sure you will remember, used to try, frankly, 

 to steal lands for these purposes and would steal the dike marsh 

 over here, which would forever be essentially a refuge, even though 

 administered by the Park Service, so that we could save lands that 

 are needed for migratory waterfowl and for other migratory species 

 in the North American continent. 



We have had some pretty good success. The lands acquired have 

 achieved significant benefits. But we have to go beyond the bound- 

 aries of the United States and we have to go beyond the traditional 

 mechanisms of buying lands. We have to go to new kinds of land 

 administration, including nonrefuge status, and in this particular 

 proposal, lands which will have both refuge and nonrefuge status. 



But there is another thing that is important. For the first time i 

 we found a way of protecting lands in cooperation with our neigh- 

 bors to the north and south. Our Canadian friends and our Mexi- 

 can friends are joining us in protecting migratory waterfowl and 

 other migratory birds. And the interesting thing about this entire 

 proposal is that it requests a modest increase in authorizations, but 

 it achieves a huge leverage, as Mr. Weldon wisely observed, some- 

 thing on the order of about 2 to 1 will be the actual leverage of ex- 

 penditures by States and local units of government, private agen- 

 cies, and nongovernmental organizations, including Ducks Unlim- 

 ited and Nature Conservancy, two institutions for which I have a 

 particular fondness and respect. 



So we can look at this as being a success, because not only does 

 the Federal Government give a buck but our partners give two, and 



