[Introduced by Karen Miller -
NACo President; Commissioner: Boone County, Missouri]

GREETINGS FROM PRESIDENT BUSH

The President asked me to represent him today at this important gathering and to extend his best wishes to each one of you.

The Bush administration has worked diligently to build a vital and vibrant partnership with the membership of the National Association of Counties.

Today highlight growing importance of local governments in environmental decision-making.

Discuss ways we are working together to renew habitat for wildlife, preserve sites that reflect our nation's heritage, and improve recreation opportunities for families to enjoy the outdoors.

ECONOMY AND JOBS

The President has asked me to extend to each of you his gratitude for your work at the local level that is helping to promote economic growth and new jobs for Americans.

When you take a moment and look 'under the hood' of America's economy, your 'Main Street' businesses are a key economic engine.

Small businesses now create 7 out of every 10 new jobs in America - they alone account for half of the output of our economy. And here's an interesting fact: Small businesses owned by women are now growing at more than twice the rate of businesses owned by men.

I know that each of you do your part to promote small businesses - and work to encourage their products and services. At the federal level we are also making great progress on their behalf.

One element of the strong resurgence of small business is the administration's determination to provide tax relief. In 2004, 25 million small businesses will receive tax relief totaling about $75 billion.

Nationwide, our economy has now posted steady job gains for each of the last ten months - more than 1.5 million jobs have been created since last August.

America's standard of living is on the rise, after-tax incomes are up by 11% since December of 2000, and home ownership is at an all-time high..

By any independent measurement, the nation's economic policies are sound. Our economic grows stronger every day and we continue to drive steady job growth.

COMMITMENT TO THE ENVIRONMENT

At same time we want a thriving economy, also want spectacular natural world. Bush Administration believes we can have both.

As we learn more about how to protect natural ecosystems,

• develop new environmental protection technologies
  
  
• also learning more about decision-making methodologies for reaching results that benefit both humans and the environment.

Environmental protection has been quietly undergoing a positive transformation.

Think about evolution of environmentalism over last half of 20th Century

Made significant progress, but also developed an approach based on conflict, litigation, and winner takes all batles

States resisted dictates from Washington, and people complained that federal regulators did not understand local circumstances

State official myself - often felt federal govt was ignoring good ideas and reasonable requests from states

I believe these collaborative approaches are the wave of the future.

Quiet successes of people sitting down together

From the federal level, we want to support and encourage the success that comes from incorporating local knowledge into solutions.

Because so many of us in Bush Administration come from state and local experience, we recognize that each of us in this room is in the same business.

Our job is to represent the public the best and most effective way possible. Working together as a team to solve common problems for Americans is the best way we can earn the title of 'public servant'.

Over the past two years, the Bush Administration has worked to give local governments - and the citizens you represent - a broader role and a stronger voice in environmental management.

White House CEQ took historical first step of making clear that counties are welcome as cooperating agencies in NEPA analysis.

Seat at table as important decisions are being made - not just standing outside.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTNERSHIP - COOPERATING AGENCIES

At Interior, BLM has taken lead in going a step further, and requiring that counties be included as cooperating agencies wherever feasible.

Have been conducting workshops for county officials in many states to provide in-depth information about how to effectively participate.

Proposed regulations coming out Tuesday.

60 days for comment.

When this process is complete at Interior, the Bureau of Land Management will become the first federal agency to make cooperating agency policy the rule.

Asking other Interior agencies to examine how they can strengthen role of counties.

This approach is long overdue, but it is already making a difference - Wyoming's Jack Morrow Hills Plan and Colorado's Naval Oil Shale Reserve (Roan Plateau) Resource Management Plan will now strongly reflect the input of local, county and state cooperating agencies.

OTHER WAYS WE ARE WORKING MORE CLOSELY WITH COUNTY GOVERNMENTS

WATER 2025

• Here in Arizona and in other areas of the American West and Southwest, there is a serious concern over the combined forces of drought and explosive population growth. Some areas are facing a shortage of water not only for ranchers and agriculture, but also for Native Americans, wildlife, and exploding growth in urban areas.

• For this reason, we created the Water 2025 initiative. It encourages voluntary water banks, is working to improve technology for water conservation and efficiency, looks at ways to lower the cost for desalination, and removes institutional barriers to increased cooperation and collaboration among stakeholders as well as other market based measures.

• We are building common-sense partnerships with local governments to achieve the goals of Water 2025. For example, the Las Vegas Water Authority offers residents $1 a square foot to replace traditional grass lawns with natural desert landscaping. The city saves 55 gallons of drinking water per year from this cost effective strategy.
  
  HEALTHY FORESTS

We are also working to protect communities from wildland fire with the President's Healthy Forests Initiative. Preventing communities from the devastation of wildfires by eliminating tinder-dry growth is the primary goal.

• Together with the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service:

• In FY 2003 treated 2.7 million acres - 1.6 million acres in the wildland-urban interface.
• We plan to complete treatment of another 2.7 million acres in FY 2004.

OPPORTUNITIES AND EXAMPLES FOR COOPERATIVE CONSERVATION

• Today we have hundreds of county, local and tribal governments working as partners in successful CONSERVATION GRANT PROGRAMS.
  

WETLANDS

• This past April, on Earth Day, President Bush announced a new initiative to restore, improve and protect at least 3-million acres of wetlands.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has revealed that, for the first time in U.S. history, we have reversed the annual net loss of wetlands on our farms. Overall, we are nearing the President's goal of 'no net loss' of wetlands.

• A key part of wetlands restoration effort is the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, which allows the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create partnerships with communities, conservation groups, Tribes and individual landowners to restore habitat. Since FY 2001, the Partners program has restored:
  
• over 850,000 acres of wetlands,, native grasslands and uplands, and
  
• over 2000 miles of streams and streamside habitat.
  
  
• In south Alabama, the Partners program is working with a variety of partners, including Baldwin and Mobile counties, to restore vital wetlands at Weeks Bay and Mobile Bay. Alabama has the fourth largest list of federally-listed threatened and endangered species in the United States. Approximately 83% of those species are tied to wetlands and stream habitat - so this effort is making a big difference in a critical habitat.

CHALLENGE COST-SHARE GRANTS

• The Challenge Cost Share program is administered through three Interior Department agencies - the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Its single mission is to conserve natural resources through the development of partnerships on lands adjacent to and in the midst of Federal, State and private lands.

• The goal is to remove barriers to citizen participation in conservation efforts and to fulfill the promise of citizen stewardship.

• In Clark County, Nevada the BLM has been working to remove trash, abandoned vehicles, appliances and other debris that has been illegally dumped at 50 sites on ten acres of BLM-managed public lands. With matching funds from Clark County and the Partners in Conservation organization, this grant has been leveraged to help restore the original nature of this desert migratory bird habitat.

• In Eagle County, Colorado a partnership effort is restoring big game habitat that has been scarred by illegal dumping, uncontrolled off-highway vehicle use and illegal woodcutting. Both the Town of Eagle and Eagle County were eager to support this effort because the area's proximity to the town. The effort has brought together conservationists, local developers, local businesses and the BLM.
  

• In Martin and St. Lucie Counties in Florida, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in a successful partnership with county governments, the Town of Jupiter Island, the local chapter of Audubon and the Nature Conservancy in the restoration of critical wildlife habitat - removing invasive plants from a key marshland. This ongoing project is helping to enhance the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge.

PRIVATE STEWARDSHIP GRANTS PROGRAM

• Another key initiative has been working with state and local governments in our endangered species program.

• One aspect of this has been providing voluntary habitat restoration. President Bush originally proposed this grant program when he was Governor of Texas. This program puts an emphasis on partnerships - helping communities forge alliances with local landowners to protect and recover imperiled species.

• In Long Island, New York I was pleased to personally announce a Private Stewardship Grant to the local chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the towns of East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton and Southold. The grant will help fund efforts to protect nesting areas and other fragile beach habitats for the piping plover and other species that are native to the beach ecosystem.

Also looking to work with county governments to enhance tourism.

• Preserve America Communities: 1st Lady announced this in remarks to NACo a few years ago.
  
  
• HIghlight sustainable uses of their historical and cultural sites, and the economic and educational opportunities related to heritage tourism.

AMERICA'S NATIONAL PARKS - A STATUS REPORT

" Tourism: important role in economic vitality for America and many of your counties.

" Clear up one issue before it dampens tourism this summer. You may have heard some news stories creating the impression that our national parks are in dire straits this year - deteriorating before our eyes and starved for the funding that would allow them to function normally.

" I won't dwell on the motivation of our critics - but as a group of elected officials you have probably had your own experiences with interest groups overdramatizing things for their own purposes.

" Concerned about impact on families who may change vacation plans because of these grim reports.

" The reality is that this summer we will welcome more than a million visitors a day to Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mount Rushmore, Arches, Kitty Hawk, or any of the countless other spectacular and historic places managed by the National Park Service.

" Visitors to our national parks will discover a park system that continues to be the best in the world and is getting better year by year.

" Funding levels are at record highs. More money per acre, per employee and per visitor than at any time in history.

" President Bush set and funded three priorities for the National Parks:

1. Improve repair and maintenance

" The President is meeting his commitment to invest $4.9 billion over five years to address the national park maintenance backlog.
o 4,000 improvements completed, planned or underway in 49 states:
Improved trails
New and improved visitor centers
More accessible campgrounds
Better roads
Reduced environmental threats through better sewer and drinking water systems

2. Preserve Natural Resources

" National Park Service has nearly tripled funding to preserve and study the magnificent natural resources within National Parks.
o Invited university scientists
o Strengthens the scientific base of knowledge about plants, animals and ecosystems
o Exotic plant teams - helping us do our share to eradicate invasive weeds

3. Protect Visitors and Employees

" To increase visitor and employee safety, the Administration has increased National Park Service law enforcement budgets by 23.5 percent under President Bush.

" National Park Service has largest staff ever: FY 2005 will have 20,637-an increase of 839 over Park Service employment in 2000


" Protecting and improving our National Parks is a key priority for this administration. We have much more work to do in our parks, but they are in fine shape and the welcome mat is out.

CONCLUSION

" Interior is the nation's biggest landlord - with a responsibility of stewardship for our public lands.

" Whether we're working with representatives of gateway communities near our National Parks, or working together to improve habitat and protect historic places, Interior is far more effective when we can work in partnership with you and the people you represent.

" Our partnership with NACo is one of Interior's most constructive and successful. Much of that has to do with you and the progressive leadership of this organization.

" I thank the National Association of Counties for your efforts to maintain these strong ties on behalf of the people of this nation.