(Excerpts from his speech)

Let me just reflect very briefly about where we've been because, as we reach the end of this millennium and we look back over the last six, ten, twenty, twenty-five years, we have every reason to celebrate what we have done together. It has been an unprecedented, extraordinary achievement. That's the good news, but we still have a long way to go. I'm going to suggest today that the Year 2000 will be the year of decision. As we look back at where we've come from and take great satisfaction, we must look ahead at where we still have to go. In the long term, the Year 2000 will be the year of decision for the future of South Florida, of the Everglades ecosystem, and all the many related issues.

I was just with Joe Miller [Col. Miller, District Engineer responsible for preparation of the Restudy of the Central & Southern Florida Project for the Army Corps of Engineers] and he showed me ten volumes of that Restudy. A bunch of photographers were there, and Joe looked at me and said, "Bruce if you put your left hand on these ten volumes and then repeat after me. ." Well, I've got to tell you, I'd be proud to do that now. When the draft Restudy came out towards the end of last year, it was apparent that the Corps had done an extraordinary job and that we were within reach of something we could all be proud of. With the modifications and the changes that have been made since, I just want to say that the Restudy is a fine product, and the Clinton Administration is going to be up on Capitol Hill this July 1st to announce that we support this project. The Restudy will be the opening chapter of the Year 2000.

The second extraordinary chapter is what we've come here to sign today - the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Multi Species Recovery Plan. Much like the Restudy, it represents a remarkable transformation; demonstrating what we can do together in partnership with good leadership from Colonel Miller and his crowd, with good science and determination. The Multi Species Recovery Plan, like the Restudy, represents an unprecedented and pioneering effort.

I challenge scientists to step forward in new kind of role, not as adversaries or as foils for politicians, but in an affirmative way to make certain that the politicians understand. Most importantly, scientists must help both politicians and communities understand that we really are at the eleventh hour, and that this is really the last best opportunity we are going to have. Get out there and explain what's at stake and why it is so important to generate the understanding and ultimately the support for taking these projects from about half way all the way to the top.

Related Reading

(Please note: these sites are hosted by the Department of Interior.)

• "We're restoring the Florida Everglades -- the largest restoration project ever undertaken in our nation's history." - Former President Clinton, Interior's 150th Anniversary celebration, March 4, 1999 (page hosted on at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website.)

• The Thin Green Line

  By Bruce Babbitt

  (Prepared in November 1996)

  I recently mounted over my desk in Washington a color photograph of what I consider perhaps the most complex and intriguing landscape in the world.

  It is not one of those "Sierra Club" pictures of some precolumbian Garden of Eden, untouched by the hand of Western man. To the contrary. It is a landscape where architects and engineers have tried -- with the best of intentions -- to control and subjugate that garden to make it more productive and useful.

  To do so, they dug drainage ditches, straightened out rivers, built dikes, imported exotic trees like melaleucca, Brazilian pepper and Australian pine. They even installed a long retaining wall so that heavy rainfall would not run off from the garden to flood nearby homes. But because of their hasty efforts to make over an entire landscape, I can today clearly see in the photo the extensive damage they have done to the garden. I see a deeply flawed landscape.

  And an epic opportunity. More...