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cafeteria-styled approach, where you have to do a lot of things now- 

 adays just tc stay on the land. 



So in the State of Texas, we have added legislatively. At the Fed- 

 eral level, if we deal with the inheritance tax problem and are al- 

 lowed to keep these large contiguous tracts together, we have a 

 real opportunity. The problem at this moment is that there is no 

 resource nor expertise that these people can rely on. Texas Parks 

 and Wildlife simply doesn't have the resources to provide this infor- 

 mation. 



And I will tell you Texas has a fairly large nongame department 

 compared, for example, to Mr. Tauzin's State that has but one per- 

 son in that department. Agencies simply do not have the funding 

 to go out and work with these private landowners, and I think that 

 private land initiatives are the future of conservation in many of 

 these states. 



Mr. LONGLEY. If I could just pick up on your comment, and I 

 would just note for the record, in fact, I had an opportunity to re- 

 view a major study that is done on forestland in the Northeast. 

 And you mentioned estate taxes. Frankly, from everything I have 

 read, the Federal estate tax and even lack of a capital gains tax 

 is probably one of the single biggest dangers to wildlife habitat be- 

 cause of the basic tax policy encouraging land sale and divesti- 

 ture 



Mr. EUBANKS. Absolutely. 



Mr. LONGLEY. [continuing! — and it is pushing land — literally 

 pushing land into development, and it is a travesty. But I would 

 appreciate it if you could discuss the mechanics of how the State 

 tax works because, very frankly, from what I see in my own State, 

 much of the harm to habitat is coming through owner's tax and 

 regulatory policies out of Washington. And all of the initiatives for 

 significant gain for increasing conservation easements, for set- 

 asides, for building up wildlife are coming on the State level. 



And I guess I am kind of questioning whether the initiative you 

 are proposing isn't misdirected and whether these taxes ought to 

 be looked at on a State-by-State basis where they can be managed 

 more effectively than on a Federal level because, very candidly, one 

 of the major problems we are dealing with right now is currently 

 existing Federal tax policy. 



And I am not sure personally — ^you know, kind of echo Mr. 

 Torkildsen's comments — I am not sure honestly that adding an- 

 other system of Federal taxation on top of what is already an oner- 

 ous system of taxation that is already causing many of the prob- 

 lems we are seeking to resolve — I am not sure that that initiative 

 is well placed. But I would appreciate your comment. 



Mr. EuBANKS. Concerning states, sir, I would split the issues. 

 Obviously, you and I are going to agree on the issue of estate tax 

 and the effect it is having on private landowners. This is certainly 

 the case in the State of Texas. 



However, in my industry, tourism is an interstate activity. That 

 is, people are traveling from one State to another, and the re- 

 sources are attracting them. Our industry is based on an experi- 

 ence. Resource-based tourism is experiential. So for us to look at 

 it from State to State makes for a very inconsistent resource base. 



