[Introduction by Chair of the Day, Chuck Monroe-or possibly Georgia Wolf.]

I enjoy working with your delegation and government. The SNPLA (Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act) is a tremendous success and Gov. Quinn is a tremendous partner. Coming to Nevada is like coming home, since the Department of the Interior owns 68% of your land.

Let me take a few minutes to talk about the humanitarian efforts on the other side of the world, where our American troops serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Iraq, American forces are rebuilding water supplies, roads, and utilities. Electricity generation is now up to pre-war levels, and will be even higher soon.

Conditions in schools were so bad under Saddam Hussein that school enrollment had dropped to nearly 50% of eligible children in some areas.

Today the coalition has completed more than 1600 school renovations and delivered tens of thousands of school supply kits. They are repairing orphanages and nursery schools. Parents and educators are coming together to ensure a better atmosphere for learning.

Today, children pledge allegiance to Iraq-not to a dictator.

In Afghanistan, girls can now attend school. Women are obtaining the right to participate in the political system.

These are all steps toward an independent Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a massive and difficult undertaking-but it is worth our effort. The failure of democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan would extinguish the hopes of millions in the region.

The stakes in the Middle East could not be higher. As long as the region is a place of tyranny, despair and anger, it will produce men and movements that threaten the safety of America and our friends.

As the President has said, "The stagnation and isolation and anger of that region will give way to progress and opportunity. America and the world will be safer from catastrophic violence because terror is not the tool of the free."

Fundamental change takes time. But we remember the success of Ronald Reagan's policy in dealing with communism-peace through strength. A consistent and firm American resolve can change the course of the world.

In the Middle East, we have seen the effect, with Libya's Moammar Qaddafi backing away from terrorism. The war against terrorism requires steady guidance. To change course now-to signal Al Qaeda and its cohorts that America is back down-would be disastrous in the long run.

I thought I would share a story of an election cycle involving President Lincoln. Historians have looked at newspaper coverage of the famous Lincoln and Douglas debates in 1858.

After the first of the momentous debates, according to most reliable transcripts-Lincoln's supporters rushed to the podium, hoisted the candidate onto their shoulders and carried him away in triumph.

The pro-Douglas Democratic press reported that Lincoln had been beaten so badly that he had to be helped from the stage. 146 years later-things are still the same. I'm here to present some things about President Bush's accomplishments you may not have heard.

To start with, the President has placed a high priority on environmental programs. On Monday, the President released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2005. It proposes almost $47 billion for environment and natural resource programs, the highest level ever requested by a President.

President Bush has an approach to conservation that 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.

It is a new way of looking at conservation. We think most Americans are conservationists. We think you care for the world you will leave your children. We believe that we can have a thriving economy along with a spectacular natural world.

Critics have the luxury of looking at one part of the picture and complaining about why it's not perfect. When you are a responsible steward, charged with balancing the overall needs of the American public, you have to look at the big picture.

If we have natural gas wells in Wyoming, we don't have gas that burns cleaner than other fuels to meet air quality standards in California. Factory workers in New Jersey lose their jobs because their factory moves overseas to where natural costs 90% less.

Critics opposed President Bush's Healthy Forest initiative (as a giveaway to timber costs).

In Northern Nevada this morning I looked at our real efforts-cutting a firebreak through pinyon juniper sagebrush land to protect an Indian community from fast-moving range fires. Our biggest challenge is exploring options like biomass energy to find uses for the brush and small trees that will come off our lands so we build self-sustaining public/private partnerships to make our forests and rangelands less fire prone.

The old approach to environmental protection relies on punishment and litigation to accomplish goals. Those are tools we still use to enforce the law, and they have their place in dealing with bad actors.

But we want to do more than just get everyone to meet minimum levels of compliance and avoid penalties. We want to achieve environmental excellence. We can be much more successful by using the carrot instead of the stick-by capitalizing on people's love for the land and their enthusiasm for protecting birds and wildlife.

This Administration wants to see local citizens actively involved in helping the lands they care about most, not have all the decisions made in Washington.

A perfect example is the Endangered Species Act that is sometimes viewed as a all stick and no carrot. Landowners often fear finding an endangered species on their private property. Most of you have probably heard the phrase, "Shoot, shovel, and shut up."

Town hall meeting in South Dakota: when news came out that prairie dogs were to be listed as an endangered species-the sale of prairie dog poison doubled. That indicates a policy isn't working.

We believe you can substitute something we call cooperative conservation and achieve on-the-ground results for endangered species and habitat conservation.

President Bush has provided a more important initiative in protecting endangered species than any President in 30 years. He brought his initiative to the Interior Department from his home state of Texas. Called the landowner incentive program, it provides states and individuals with money to help them build habitat for threatened or endangered species-voluntarily-on private lands.

Long Island-least terns

Locally, one great example starts with ranchers from the Malpai Borderlands Group in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona. They are using a $100,000 grant to improve habitat for 34 species that are at risk of extinction-including the northern aplomado falcon and the southwestern willow flycatcher.

Budget-example of way reports can sometimes differ from reality. Some newspapers reported that our recent budget proposal for next year had an $8 million cut in our endangered species program, because they only looked at the numbers for the old approach. In reality, we have a $24 million increase-with most of it going to cooperative incentive programs.

[Chart showing CCI increases.]

We are putting money into these and other cooperative programs at an ever-increasing rate. The President's new budget calls for more than a half a billion dollars for cooperative conservation programs-an increase of $84 million over this year. That will be almost four times what we spent a few years ago.

Many of these programs involve matching grants that make the total spent even larger. By inspiring lots of people to get involved, the funds for the environment multiply. The bottom line is the programs are working.

Another example involves ranchers from the Malpai Borderlands Group in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona. They are using a $100,000 stewardship grant to improve habitat for 34 federally listed, state-listed or at-risk species-including the northern aplomado falcon and the southwestern willow flycatcher.

Another cooperative conservation program is Partners for Fish and Wildlife. Since Ronald Reagan created the program in 1987, thousands of landowners have voluntarily restored 650,000 acres of wetlands, 1 million acres of upland habitat, and 4,700 miles of streams.

We are building a nation of conservationists, one acre at a time-and they are asking to work with us. We have given out thousands of grants and we have 150 landowners on a waiting list today-just in the Southwest region of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

We are also using this cooperative, partnership approach in managing our own lands.

Let me give you an example of an outstanding partnership in land management that I visited in Arizona-the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. This conservation area was not an idea hatched in Washington, D.C. Instead it got its start with the Sonoita [So-NOY-da] Valley Planning Partnership composed of several private groups.

With their help the state of Arizona agreed to combine its state trust land of more than 140,000 acres with more than 40,000 acres from the Bureau of Land Management-to create the conservation area.

This state-federal-private partnership is unusual enough but a key element to Las Ciengas is that it is a working landscape. It has land that serves productive uses, such as grazing, while efforts continue to keep it environmentally sound-with clean water and healthy habitat for plants and animals.

This agreement crosses all landscapes and political boundaries and meets environmental needs while maintaining the human working element of the ranch.

Las Ciengas National Conservation Area is an example of the path to new environmentalism that is rooted in the concept of citizen conservationists-not Washington prescriptions.

This is a better solution than people buying more prairie dog poison. But positive news doesn't sell newspapers.

FIRE AND HEALTHY FORESTS

Another environmental success is the President's Healthy Forest Initiative.

Last year just in your state, 42 large wildfires burned almost 190,000 acres, destroyed more than 300 homes, and claimed the lives of three firefighters.

Much of the problem is the overgrown and dense state of our forests and rangelands. In some areas, like the ponderosa pine forests of northern Arizona, there used to be 20 or 30 trees per acre. Today, that has grown to hundreds per acre.

Natural fires that would have cleaned house in the forests have been suppressed and insects, disease and invasive species have taken their toll. When a fire does start under these conditions, it often explodes. The fuel load allows it to burn hotter and with more intensity than an area in healthy conditions.

We estimate that 190 million acres of public forests and rangelands are in need of treatment.

That is why the President proposed the Healthy Forests Initiative two years ago. The Congress passed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and the President signed it into law before Christmas.

In this proposed budget, both the Interior Department and the Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture, have increased funds for fuels treatments and fire suppression. The two together have $760 million for fuels reduction and other activities that advance the new law. The total program funding is now four times the amount provided in fiscal year 2000.

But we didn't wait for the new legislation to be signed to start working on cleaning up our forests and rangelands. The Bureau of Land Management in Arizona ahs treated 1,200 acres of the Weaver Mountain Project, one of 15 pilot fuels treatment projects in the West. These projects all used new guidance on how to do environmental assessments more efficiently.

Weaver Mountain is three miles southeast of Yarnell, Arizona. It is 14,000 acres covered in chaparral brush. We did a prescribed burn in December and will do another 1,200 acres in the spring to reduce the dense stands of chaparral. The burn is intended to reduce the danger of wild land fires and provide better forage for wildlife and livestock.

The plan is to reduce and interrupt the continuity of hazardous fuels by creating a mosaic pattern of burned and unburned areas. This area crosses Federal, state and private lands.

Under the National Fire Plan, BLM Arizona is planning 38 projects to treat 30,000 acres using both mechanical fuels reduction treatments and prescribed burning. We will also do 14 projects in what we call the wild land urban interface, treating 10,000 acres with thinning and fuel breaks around high risk communities. The wild land urban interface is where development is encroaching on public lands and other wild land areas. Development comes to these areas and population grows as more and more people seek to live closer to nature.

It is a start, but there is much more to do. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act will give us the tools to move forward.

DROUGHT AND WATER 2025

I don't have to tell residents of Phoenix that we have been suffering from drought in the West and Southwest. Arizona has an added wrinkle in that its population has increased by more than 40 percent over the last decade.

The Colorado River is the lifeblood for water in the basin states. We had a success last year when California agreed to get down to its allocated share of the river. Under an agreement, California has 15 years to ratchet down and stop using the excess water in the Colorado.

This opens up water for states like Arizona with increasing population demands.

However, access to surplus water is tied to the elevation of Lake Mead. This mammoth reservoir has steadily fallen nearly 60 feet in the last three years. That is about 6 stories. It is at its lowest level since 1968. If it continues to drop there may be no access to surplus water in the Lower Basin.

Last year we put together something called Water 2025. As its name suggests, we intend to prevent crises and conflict in the West by planning and working ahead. We held one of our nine workshops here in Phoenix last year.

The President is putting $21 million into Water 2025 to help western communities to develop conservation, efficiency and water-marketing projects-in hopes of avoiding some future crises.

The grants will be matched with state, local and private sector funds. We will invest in conservation projects, water-saving technologies for irrigation systems, desalination research and strategies to improve water management, including water banks and water-marketing systems.

Arizona has been at the forefront of groundwater management and banking since it established banking authority in 1996. The authority ensures Arizona's ability to take its full allocation of Colorado River water, before it is fully needed for direct use, and store it in underground aquifers. You have banked about 2 million acre-feet into underground storage in Phoenix, Pinal and Maricopa Counties. An acre-foot of water is enough for a family of four for one year, so you could supply 8 million people with water for a year with what you have stored.

You have banked about 2 million acre-feet into underground storage in Phoenix, Pinal and Maricopa Counties. An acre-foot of water is enough for a family of four for one year, so you could supply 8 million people with water for a year with what you have stored.

TPIA

I can't talk about last year's fire season without a reference to the devastating fires in California. We all watched in horror as the evening news showed homes going up in flames. But when catastrophe happens, this nation always seems ready to step up to the plate.

I can tell you that in California more than 400,000 volunteer hours have already been donated to help cleanup after those fires and to help repair damages to watersheds.

This is where a program at Interior coincides with some of the good work of Rotary International. We have reinstituted a program called Take Pride in America. The program is a national partnership that empowers volunteers to enhance our parks, wildlife refuges, recreation areas and cultural and historic sites. We then recognize those volunteer efforts with awards.

The slogan for our Take Pride program is: "It's your land, lend a hand."

I couldn't resist bringing this up since I am aware that Rotary International's President for 2003-2004 has the theme of, "Lend a hand."

Keeping the public lands in a state of good repair is a huge undertaking and we appreciate the thousands of volunteers who help us with that task. This is a priority for President Bush as is keeping our park facilities in good repair.

PARK MAINTENANCE BACKLOG

Before he took office he vowed to designate almost $5 billion to address the maintenance backlog in our National Parks. This year's budget request of almost $725 million for park facilities maintenance and construction continues the President's commitment. It is almost $25 million more than last year.

Added to the Interior total is $310 million in the transportation budget for road repair in the Parks. That is a more than $1 billion commitment in one year.

We have a dozen projects in the Grand Canyon National Park alone. We are doing things like restoring the Grand Canyon Depot, fixing campgrounds and wastewater treatment facilities. The Grand Canyon Depot, a National Historic Landmark, was built back in 1909 and is the only railway depot still in active service in the National Park system.

But it is a log cabin and vulnerable to fire so we are putting in an automatic fire sprinkler system. We are repairing wastewater treatment facilities to keep the park's water clean, and fixing campgrounds so families can enjoy their vacations.

We are also refurbishing 3 watercrafts, that carried adventurers down the rapids of the Colorado River-back as far as 1909.

Another Arizona park maintenance project puts $3 million into rehabilitating the Painted Desert Inn and Cabins at Petrified Forest National Park, with its historic murals. Forty percent of the building is closed to the public because of the conditions. We are going to fix that.

Besides finding money for needed repairs and construction, the Interior Department for the first time has done a complete inventory and condition assessment of our park facilities. Business-like approach to prioritize our park maintenance needs.

What I have been able to relay in our short time together is just a snapshot of the positive things we are doing for conservation in this country. It is an impressive record. But it is a new way of thinking that doesn't fit with old environmentalism.

I thank you for the opportunity to bring you just some of the real facts about what we are doing for conservation in this nation.