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MATTOLE RESTORATION COUNCIL 

 box ieo 



PETROLIA, CALIFORNIA 98338 



STATEMENT OF FRF.F.MAN HOUSE, MATTOIJ: RESTORATION COUNCIL 



ON H.R. 4481 



U.S. HOUSli OF REPRESENTATIVES 



COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES 



SUBCOMMriTLE ON ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES 



JULY 19, L994 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: 



My name is Freeman House; I am a founder and director of the 

 Mattole Restoration Council (MRC) in northern California. The MRC 

 and its member groups have for fifteen years engaged in salmon 

 enhancement and watershed rehabilitation work, and in community 

 organizing in the service of these activities. I am submitting as an 

 addendum to these remarks a magazine article I wrote some years 

 ago which describes this work, and the consequences of the work, in 

 more detail. 



Civilizations and nations rise and fall according to the 

 health of their ecosystems. This well-documented cycle has been 

 repeated again and again in human history: in China and 

 Mesopotamia, on the Ionian peninsula and on the Phoenician coasl of 

 latter-day Lebanon. After 500 years of Euroamerican residence in 

 North America, we arc facing this regular crisis of civilization once 

 again. Rut this time there may be a difference. My knowledge or 

 history is extremely limited, and I may be wrong about this, but as 

 far as I know never before has the governing body of a great nation 

 recognized the consequences of the exhaustion of their resources in 

 time to mount i strategy to break the cycle. I see this bill as ?n 

 important part of that strategy and I am exceedingly proud to 

 contribute to your deliberations. I am proud, too, that H.R. 4481 was 

 introduced by the congressman from my district, Dan Hamburg. 



I don't need to spend much time documenting the need 

 tor the restoration of aquatic ecosystems. The collapse of a salmon 

 Fishery which depends on the quality of fresh water habitat should 

 be symptom enough. The salmon fishing regions of California have 

 recently been declared economic disaster zones as hundreds of 



