Thank you, Tom (Riley, executive director of the Safari Club.) As you well know, Tom was the special agent in charge in the Fish and Wildlife Service's Atlanta regional office before he became your executive director. Our loss is your gain.

I thank you all for inviting me to be with you this evening.

It is great to be with friends like the Safari Club who support the tradition of hunting and conservation of wildlife here in the United States and abroad.

I would like to begin by telling you about a recent gathering where President Bush met with the leaders of a number of wildlife and hunting groups, including the Safari Club International and your vice president Merle Shepherd.

It took place in a room in the West Wing, right across the hall from the Oval Office. That's a convenient location, but appropriate in another way. It is called the Roosevelt Room, named in honor of both Presidents named Roosevelt.

Looking down on us from above the fireplace was a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt. I'm sure he would have been pleased to see that the group he founded, the Boone and Crockett Club, was represented.

He would have been even happier to know the trend he started, of hunters and anglers taking responsibility for conserving fish and wildlife, is still flourishing. The groups represented there, like the National Wild Turkey Federation, as well as Ducks Unlimited, the Ruffed Grouse Society, Safari Club, the Isaac Walton League, and others, speak for millions of Americans.

No matter how many times I go into the White House, I remain awed by its history. When you walk through the White House, you walk where Madison learned the British were attacking Washington… where Lincoln agonized over a divded country… and where Truman oversaw a return to peace after World War II.

There is a room in the older part of the White House that Theodore Roosevelt redecorated as a hunting lodge, with wood paneling, complete with giant buffalo and moose heads. (The décor was quickly changed again after Roosevelt left office.)

Whenever you are in the White House, meetings begin with a heightened anticipation just because of where you are. Our meeting of wildlife leaders was no different.

Let me also set the stage by telling you my boss, the President, is very punctual. He is always on time. If he is not precisely on time for something, he is early. We have been called the "On-Time Administration." So of course, we all know not be late for a meeting with the President. For Cabinet meetings, all the cabinet officers arrive about 15 minutes early, just to be on the safe side.

The meeting with hunting groups was set for about 20 minutes on the President's schedule. Before the President arrived, I kicked off the meeting, and several other Administration officials talked about the conservation initiatives within our agencies.

About 5 minutes ahead of schedule, President Bush walked into the meeting. One of the first things he told us was that his father was visiting Washington, and they would be having lunch together in a short time. President Bush's father was the 41st President of the United Sates, and George W. Bush is the 43rd. Accordingly, they are known around Washington as simply Bush 41 and Bush 43.

The President apologized that he would only get to spend a short time with our group, because he would need to leave for his appointment with "41". He then settled in and started a great conversation with the conservation leaders seated around the table.

President Bush thoroughly enjoys the outdoors. He is a ranch owner and he understands conservation, invasive species and caring for the land. He spends rare free time fishing or hunting. The hallways in the West Wing display photos of the President clearing brush on his ranch, or fishing with his dog Barney. There's a recent picture of the President and his father in their bright orange vests and hats, hunting rifles in hand.

Anyway, the President talked with our group about the importance of protecting habitat for wild creatures, and about how the Healthy Forests Initiative will help in restoring habitat. We talked about the wildlife refuge system and its important contribution to so many types of birds and wildlife. We talked alot about wetlands, and the controversy about wetlands regulation.

In that meeting, the President pledged to continue the goal of "no net loss of wetlands."

Well, the President must have enjoyed the conversation, because he lingered. He stayed past the appointed moment of departure. Then finally, he stood up. But instead of saying good-bye, he invited everyone to join him in the Oval Office, and the hunting stories continued. The on-time President kept his father waiting so he could enjoy more conversation with fellow sportsmen.

So, I want to thank you, Merle, for helping me get credit for one of the President's favorite meetings.

At the end of the meeting, rob presented the President with a call box that makes a loud turkey call. I doubt that a sound like that has been heard in the white House since Theodore Roosevelt's term.

I have heard that for a few days after that meeting, the President quit using the intercom and instead used the turkey call to summon his staff into the oval office.

It only took a few days for the turkey call to mysteriously disappear.

The President appreciated your support last year for one of the biggest conservation projects we have ever undertaken, the Healthy Forests Initiative.

I find hunters and other people whose hobbies or jobs take them into the forests and rangelands of this country, better understand what the President has been saying.

I grew up in Colorado, hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains. I have vivid memories of the way those mountains looked when I was young.

There were forests of strong Ponderosa pine, punctuated by open meadows and stands of quaking aspen. Deer and elk, ptarmigan and marmots were plentiful. My family was always watching as we hiked or drove through the mountains, trying to catch a glimpse of wildlife.

Today the forests look a lot different than the beautiful stands of my childhood. The pines are much denser. Scientists tell us there are now hundreds of pines per acre, where once there were only 15 - 25. My gut tells me the same thing. There are now far too many stands of scrawny, dog hair pines. Whole hillsides contain ghostly trees, bare of needles --- that have succumbed to pine beetle infestations, and await a stray spark to ignite them.

By preventing all the little fires, we set the stage for huge, catastrophic fires-unnatural fires that burn far hotter and in a more devastating way than their predecessors.

Last year, I watched some my childhood forest haunts burn. The Heyman Fire burned mountains near Denver, and sent clouds of smoke high into the sky---eclipsing both the sun, and any fire I had ever seen in a lifetime of living near the mountains.

But we also know that the effects of decades of forest neglect have less spectacular, but equally significant effects. For years, our forests were moving toward a monoculture of dense forest. Meadows needed for turkeys and other wildlife were dwindling.

We have taken on the task of reducing fire danger in our forests. This project in large part equals habitat restoration. It provides a diversity of habitat for all types of wildlife. Obviously, we will not be able to restore 190 million acres of at-risk forests and rangelands overnight.

But with the support of the Safari Club International we achieved passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. The President's budget provides the full authorized amount to implement it. Thanks to your efforts we now have unprecedented resources to restore our forests to health.

I share the President's belief that those who live on work on, hunt and fish on the land are often the best conservationists.

This approach to conservation seeks to reduce conflict, enhance partnerships and promote results. We believe environmental progress resides in the efforts of all of us to apply a caring hand to the landscape.

We believe that we can have a thriving economy along with a spectacular natural world.

Although Interior manages one out of every 5 acres of land in this country, we also recognize the critical importance of enhancing habitat on private lands.

All together we call cost-share programs like private stewardship grants and Partners for Fish and Wildlife grants - Cooperative Conservation. In the year 2000, Interior had about $135 million in these programs. We have vastly expanded these cooperative grants. Today that figure is more than ½ billion dollars.

Washington D.C. is more mandating these projects, it is sharing them, and it is working.

Every acre we restore on private lands makes it easier for species to survive and flourish. Flourishing wildlife means better hunting and fishing.

But what else have we done for hunters and angler - the sportspeople like you, who spend more than $70 billion a year to do what they love?

We listen, we care and we believe we have made a dramatic change during this administration. We celebrate the role of hunters and anglers and what they do for conservation -we don't try to hide it.
Here are a few examples of how we are building partnerships with hunters and anglers.

• We are actively defending in court - with the Safari Club at our side - the congressionally mandated right to hunt and fish within the refuge system and the National Park System. The Fish and Wildlife Service currently is defending a lawsuit brought by animal rights activists challenging public hunting programs on 37 national wildlife refuges. More than 30 hunting and fishing conservation partners have voiced their opposition to this lawsuit on our behalf.

• We have added 50 new hunting and fishing programs to our National Wildlife Refuges. You can now hunt on more than 300 of our 544 refuges.

• We are expanding hunting access on our refuge system where possible. We have full-time hunting and fishing coordinators in the refuge system to provide quality hunting and fishing experiences.

• We just completed a three-day training program to teach refuge staff how to safely and successfully administer hunting programs on refuges. As part of the course, they learn the history and culture of hunting in this country and how the support of hunters has been vital to the refuge system.

• We recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and 17 sportsmen's organization, including the Safari Club, to improve and maintain hunting and fishing access to federal lands.

• We signed a memorandum of understanding last March to work with Wheelin' Sportsmen to help disabled and mobility-impaired hunters enjoy their sport.

I also understand the Safari Club also has a program to encourage disabled hunters. Through this partnership, the Service held a hunt for waterfowl for disabled hunters at the Bombay Hook Refuge in Delaware. Five wheelchair-bound hunters came in at 4 a.m. for breakfast and were then escorted to three temporary waterfowl blinds designed to allow those inside to shoot from a sitting position. Each blind was equipped with a radio or cell phone for safety. A champion waterfowl caller volunteered his time and brought decoys.

The hunters were deeply moved by the experience. One hunter-a wounded veteran-said, "Events like this renew people's self esteem. The world comes alive when you get out into the woods, sit in a marsh to see the sun rise and have the camaraderie of others who are in wheelchairs."
We want to expand this innovative program in the years to come. We would be happy to work with the Safari Club.

Allow me to give credit where credit is due. We have a fantastic director of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Steve Williams. Steve loves to hunt and fish. The reason I know that is-he has not been to any of my weekly meetings. I suspect some of you are partly to blame for that. Steve is your kind of man.

The President's proposed budget has increases in almost all categories that affect fish and game.

This budget, for example, includes more than a $16 million increase in North American Wetlands Conservation Act programs. In the past three years, partners have matched these grants with nearly$700 million in contributions.

Under the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program created by Ronald Reagan in 1987, we worked closely with thousands of private landowners to restore more than 150,000 acres of wetlands, more than 700,000 acres of native grasslands and uplands, and nearly 2,400 miles of streams and streamside habitat.

Conservation isn't just about budgets, however. Conservation is about the deep love of the natural world and the yearning to keep it healthy for future generations. It is about the intimate understanding of nature that is learned first-hand out in the woods.

It is vitally important that we pass these traditions down to young people. I am especially pleased to see the work the Safari Club does in promoting the love and values associated with hunting to women and children.

This is important to America. Hunters have been the pillar of conservation or more than 1000 years. Teddy Roosevelt, Ding Darling, and Aldo Leopold were all hunter conservationists. Hunters were perhaps the only group in the history of our nation to actually go to Congress and say "Tax Us." That's what the hunting community did in the 1930s when they got Congress to establish the Duck Stamp and the Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration program.

In fact, the Pittman-Robertson program has arguable been the most effective conservation program ever, with billions of dollars going to states to fund wildlife and recreation projects and programs.

Hunters also have been the most eager volunteers for conservation. When a refuge manager needs help restoring a wetland or doing other work on a refuge, who are among the first people to show up to volunteer? It's you -sportsmen.

For example, members of the Chesapeake Chapter of Safari Club International are working with the staff of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge to establish native vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay. They are also helping to construct boardwalks and observation trails on the refuge and install a hydraulic deer stand with an accessible path and shooting lanes for disabled hunters.

It is one thing to support conservation from a fax machine and press release. It is quite another to wade out into the muck with your waders on to actually do the work. Hunters and other sportsmen have done the work. I applaud you.

The Safari club is continuing this great legacy of conservation both here and in foreign lands. The list of species that your conservation programs are benefiting in the United States range from bighorn sheep to Kodiak brown bear to non-game species such as bats and bluebirds. In foreign countries, you have developed innovative programs to conserve species such as the argali sheep and the jaguar.

You have supported the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. My assistant secretary, Craig Manson, who headed the U.S. delegation to CITES in Santiago two years ago, was impressed by the contributions of your incoming President, John Munson, and the Safari Club staff at that meeting.

In October, the 166 member nations of CITES will meet again in Bangkok. A number of issues of interest to the Safari club will be on the agenda. We look forward to the Safari Club's input at that meeting.

On the subject of international trade, I also want to mention briefly the new enhancement policy the administration is proposing to promote conservation of endangered species in foreign countries. Under this proposed policy, countries that have effective conservation programs would be allowed to export to the United States, limited numbers of these species to raise funds for these species to raise funds for these programs.

As you may know, the news media completely distorted this proposal when we proposed it last fall, reporting that it would hurt endangered species conservation. The truth is just the opposite.

What the proposal does is use the only lever we have---trade in wildlife-to encourage other countries to engage in effective conservation of endangered species. We would, in effect, reward countries that do a good job.

We receive an enormous amount of public comment on this proposal. We currently are analyzing it. But in the meantime, we will continue to look for ways to help other countries conserve their wildlife.

Once again, I thank you for inviting me to be with you tonight. President Bush has made clear his desire to work hand-in-hand with you to promote hunting and fishing and conserve wildlife and its habitat. We have a common cause. I look forward to working with you in the future to promote that cause.

Together, we will continue to build on the tradition of the hunter-conservationist. We will add new chapters to the legacy of sportsmen like Roosevelt. We will build on the proud heritage of hunting and the work that hunters have done to ensure the future health of wildlife populations and wildlife habitat.