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Senator Hecht. Thank you very much for coming. 

 Charles Callison, of Jefferson City, Missouri. 



STATEMENT OF CHARLES H. CALLISON, PUBLIC LANDS 

 CONSULTANT AND NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL 



Mr. Callison. Yes. I came a distance, too, though hardly as far 

 as our friends from Nevada. 



Senator Hecht. I went to school in Columbia, Missouri. 



Mr. Callison. You did? So did I, Senator. 



Senator Hecht. But you've got grey hair. So I'm sure you were 

 there many years before me. 



Mr. Callison. Many years. 



Senator Hecht. I was there in 1945. 



Mr. Caluson. I was graduated in the class of 1937. 



Senator Hecht. I am from Cape Shroda, Missouri. I am well 

 aware of Missouri. 



Mr. Callison. Oh, you are. I know the Cape well. 



Mr. Chairman, I have been authorized to speak for the Natural 

 Resources Defense Council, as well as in my own behalf as an inde- 

 pendent consultant on public land issues. 



Until last November, I was Director of the Public Lands Insti- 

 tute, an operating division of NRDC. 



Let me say in the beginning, in discussing the proposed Aerojet 

 land exchange, that I have been on both sites, the one in Florida 

 and the one in Nevada. 



Under Section 206 of the Federal Land Policy and Management 

 Act, the Bureau of Land Management can negotiate exchanges of 

 public lands with other Federal agencies or with States or private 

 owners if such trades serve the "public interest"— and this phrase 

 is from the law. 



The lands exchanged must be of equal value, as determined by 

 appraisal, or if they are not equal, money can be exchanged to 

 equalize the exchange, so long as the payment does not exceed 25 

 percent of the value of the Federal estate being divested, or traded 

 away. 



If a proposed exchange involves land in different States, then an 

 Act of Congress is required. That is why we are here today, to con- 

 sider an exchange initiated not by the Secretary of his Bureau of 

 Land Management, but by a corporation that wants to unload 4,660 

 acres of land that it cannot use in Florida for 51,000 near-pristine 

 acres in Nevada, that has a guaranteed water supply, a supply de- 

 veloped and proven by the U.S. Air Force with taxpayers' money 

 when it was exploring a base site for a grandiose MX missile de- 

 ployment scheme. 



Congress must determine if the proposed exchange is in the 

 public interest and not merely in the interest of the Aerojet Gener- 

 al Corporation. 



The appraisals purport to show that the 4,460 acres in Florida 

 are worth $525 per acre for a total of $2.4 million, and that some of 

 the Nevada land is worth $45 per acre, some of it $55 an acre, for a 

 total of $2.3 million. What a convenient balancing of values. Con- 

 gress must decide if the appraisals are valid. I believe they are not. 

 Frankly, I believe they were rigged. 



