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I return to testify with three messages. First, the Congress and the recreation 

 community can take a great deal of satisfaction in the new programs which have been 

 implemented since 1 985 to boost recreation opportunities — and incidentally have very 

 positive impacts on wildlife. Second, the recreation challenges facing the nation 

 continue to be very large, as recent news reports focusing on the national parks 

 emphasize. And third, the recreation community continues to strongly oppose an 

 excise tax on broad categories of equipment to underwrite a specific and specialized 

 program which neither uniquely nor significantly enhances the experiences of those 

 paying the tax. 



Let me spend a few moments on the first message. Parks, playgrounds, public 

 forests and preserves, wild and scenic rivers, trails, greenways, wildlife refuges and 

 recreation centers-together they form an infrastructure to provide healthy, educational, 

 uplifting outlets for millions of Americans' reaeational pursuits. These resources 

 contribute to the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities. They 

 create jobs and yield economic benefits. They bring people together, breaking down 

 economic, racial and geographic barriers, and enhance family and community 

 relationships. They protect species and habitat as well as precious cultural resources. 

 They are integral threads of the American fabhc. 



The recreation community has a responsibility to protect — and enhance — the 

 invaluable legacy of our national, regional and local outdoor treasures. In recent years, 

 the recreation community has established important new efforts involving trails and 

 rivers, scenic byways and greenways, rails-to-trails conversions and heritage corridors, 

 and improvements in access to public lands and waters. In virtually every case, these 

 same programs improve wildlife protection. The Conservation Reserve Program, 

 created in the 1 985 Farm Bill, has set aside millions of acres of important wildlife 

 habitat and has boosted bird populations dramatically. We were proud to play a role in 

 the initial advocacy of the measure as well as its reauthorization earlier this year. The 

 National Scenic Byway Program and the STP Enhancement Requirements, created 

 under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 , have funneled 

 millions of dollars into easements and local land use planning efforts which will protect 

 open space and corridors, thus supporting wildlife habitat and migration as well as 

 human transportation needs. The Rivers and Trails Conservation Program of the 

 National Park Service has had dramatic impact on local communities from one end of 

 the nation to the other, shaping growth and protecting valued community features, 

 including wildlife habitat. The Land and Water Conservation Fund has combined 

 recreation fees, offshore oil and gas revenues and state and local funding to acquire 

 more than $10 billion in new public lands, used for recreation and conservation 

 purposes alike. 



Recreationists pay hundreds of millions of dollars annually in entrance and 

 recreation fees to federal, state and local agencies, and we fully expect that number to 

 increase dramatically over the next five years. The recreation community is leading 

 efforts to reform recreation fee policies in an effort to ensure an increase of hundreds of 



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