30 



I think ours will be a prototype; the Timber Summit folks can 

 look at how we are currently working. We need to ultimately put 

 together guidelines that others can use. Maybe the Fish and Wild- 

 life would like to comment also. 



Mr. Plenert. In order to avert what the Secretary of Interior 

 calls a train wreck, we have worked together, as Rollie said, to look 

 at allocation of water, we have developed — are working on develop- 

 ing a memorandum of agreement where we are going to review 

 each other's biological opinions when we are dealing with the same 

 water so that one of us doesn't get out ahead or do something that 

 might affect the other's responsibility. 



What you really addressed was a broader issue, and that is ad- 

 ministration of the Endangered Species Act. It is really a quite 

 cumbersome act to administer, and there are some things in there 

 that I do believe need changing, and that is when the reauthoriza- 

 tion comes up. For example, it does offer an opportunity to have 

 difference of opinion and misinterpretation. 



I will give you one example. Just sea turtles. The agreement that 

 we have is that when a sea turtle is out in the water it becomes the 

 responsibility of National Marine Fisheries. When it hits the land 

 it is Fish and Wildlife Service's. Those are the kind of things that 

 need to be corrected so we managers at the local level have an op- 

 portunity so we can work together better. 



Chairman Studds. Do you see any mood changes in the turtle at 

 all? 



Mr. Plenert. No, they don't seem to know. That is the whole bad 

 part of this thing. But that is just one example of two agencies ad- 

 ministering the same act, so I think even though we can pledge to 

 work together and we can do all these great things, there is some 

 inconsistencies and things that need to be changed so that we have 

 an opportunity to work together better. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. Yes or no, does that include the definition of spe- 

 cies? 



Mr. Plenert. We are working on that right now. We have a com- 

 mittee put together at the national level where we have members 

 from both of our regional offices to look and address that issue. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. You know, you all might take into consideration 

 why you are here today and the number of questions that are 

 coming at you about coordination, and we are making those same 

 questions to the people at the top of the administration, too, who 

 are doing this and they are talking to each other and we hope you 

 are talking to each other, and we are talking to each other, and by 

 golly we are going to get on a common objective. 



Thank you. 



Chairman Studds. The gentleman from Maine. 



Mr. Andrews. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I want to thank the panel. In my experience, relatively short ex- 

 perience in political life, I have found that difficult problems, in- 

 tractable problems, if you are going to tackle them seriously and 

 meaningfully you have to confront some very, very tough choices, 

 so we saw that last week as the Congress began to deal with the 

 problem of the budget deficit. 



I serve on the Armed Services Committee along with Congress- 

 woman Furse, and we are dealing with the problems of downsizing 



