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Remarks Prepared for Delivery
By The Honorable Gale Norton
Secretary of the Interior
February 21, 2004
Wild Turkey Federation


In mid-December, President Bush met with the leaders of a number of wildlife and hunting groups including the Boone and Crockett Club, Ducks Unlimited, the Safari Club, and the Wild Turkey Federation and your CEO, Rob Keck.

I was at the meeting where Rob presented the President with a call box that can issue forth with a fairly loud turkey call.

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

You might guess that they put a stop to that practice rather quickly. I think the turkey call may have disappeared.

I doubt that such a sound has been heard in the White House since maybe President Theodore Roosevelt.

The meeting was in a West Wing room across the hall from the oval office. It is a convenient location but it is important in another way. It is the Roosevelt Room. The room honors both Presidents named Roosevelt, but prominently featured is Teddy Roosevelt. It was very appropriate that representatives from the Boone and Crockett Club, that was founded by Teddy Roosevelt as the first wildlife conservation club, were gathered in that room.

The modern offspring of that involvement includes Ducks Unlimited, the Safari Club, the Izaak Walton League and a number of others.

No matter how many times I go into the White House, I am awed by its history. When you walk through the White House, you walk where Madison learned the British were attacking Washington in the War of 1812. Where Lincoln agonized over a divided country and Truman oversaw a return to peace after World War II.

We were in the room that Teddy Roosevelt redecorated as a hunting lodge with wood paneling complete with giant buffalo and moose heads. The décor was changed quickly after Roosevelt left office.


Whenever you are in White House meetings they begin with excitement and anticipation just because of where you are. The meeting of wildlife leaders was no different.

Let me also set the stage by telling you my boss is punctual. He is always on time. If he is not precisely on time, he will be early-and everyone knows it.

The meeting with the President was personal and all the conservation groups had a chance to be heard. The President responded with a pledge to continue the goal of "no net loss of wetlands."

The meeting was just one way of expressing his support for hunters and anglers. A list of hunters in this administration starts at the top with President Bush and Vice President Cheney. My Deputy Secretary Steve Griles and Fish and Wildlife Director Steve Williams are both hunters, though only Steve Williams claims to have bagged a wild turkey.

HFI

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

I find that hunters and other people whose hobbies or jobs take them into the forests and rangelands of this country, better understand and appreciate 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.

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 those 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.

We used to view Smokey Bear as the embodiment of good forest management. Today, we know that healthy forest ecosystems are far more complex. "Only you can prevent forest fires" was a noble phrase, but one we took to extremes.
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 of 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. There are 190 million acres of at-risk lands that need to be treated in this Nation. Fuels treatment in large part equals habitat restoration. It provides a diversity of habitat-especially for wild turkeys.

The President's budget has $760 million in the Departments of Interior and Agriculture to implement the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. We hope to have your continued support as we work within the framework of the new law.

The President who responded so well to the gift of a wild turkey caller is both a hunter and a fisherman. He is a ranch owner and he understands conservation, invasive species and caring for the land. He knows what it means to roll up his sleeves, pull on his boots and gloves and tackle a big job on his ranch.

I share his belief that those who live on, work on, hunt and fish on the land are the best conservationists. The Wild Turkey Federation is proof of that.

Just what do we mean by the word conservationist?

"Conservationists, including sportsmen and women, look for practical, common sense ways to manage natural resources for the benefit of all involved. They understand that in today's world of limited resources, active management is better than activist's protests, and that positive cooperation among interests will accomplish more for the resource than negative bickering and indignant protest. Their primary tools are productive and proven working partnerships with resource management agencies throughout the U.S."

That definition came directly from the National Wild Turkey Federation's website. I couldn't agree with it more if I had written it. You and your organization embody the concept of citizen conservationist that I have been talking about since I became Secretary.

Altogether that is a lot of mountain bikers, boaters, hikers, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, hunters, and campers. When I think of campers I often think of the story about Sherlock Holmes. [SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY]

Our 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.

The National Wild Turkey Federation has been a great partner and a great role model in so many projects.

Your efforts have vastly multiplied the number of wild turkeys numbered and there are now more than 6 million of the wily birds. They use their wariness and speed to frustrate more than 2 and ½ million hunters across the nation. ( Well, I suppose some of you manage to hit one on occasion.)

Interior's Bureau of Land Management has cooperated with the National Wild Turkey Federation in the development of water projects, better livestock grazing management practices, forest management practices, transplanting of wild turkeys, and research to benefit the bird and its habitat.
We have worked with you on your Energy for Wildlife program, developing habitat on power line rights of way.

Just today, as I toured abandoned coal mine sites, I heard about watershed restoration projects where you are partners. Although my Department manages one out of every five acres of land in this country, we also recognize the critical importance of enhancing habitat on private lands.

Through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, we have worked with you on habitat restoration and enhancement in 11 states.

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.

For example in North Dakota we just signed an agreement last year to fence off a 175 acre riparian zone on the Heart River just upstream form the Missouri River. It is our first partnership with the North Dakota chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation under a program called Operation Big Sky.

Last year you also won a Private Stewardship Grant from Fish and Wildlife to work cooperatively with 12 private landowners in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma who own land along the Canadian River and its tributaries. The work will involve controlling invasive plants, planting trees, fencing livestock out of riparian zones, and improving grazing systems. It will enhance more than 6,000 acres of habitat for endangered and threatened species as well as turkeys.

If the federal government had gone to the 12 landowners and told them they had to give up some grazing areas for endangered species, I suspect they would have been irate.

Working together as partners to show landowners the benefit of conservation and to bear some of the cost is a much better method.

To accomplish this we worked closely with your habitat conservation people: Joe Koloski, Dowd Bruton, Bobby Madrey, and Dr. James Earl Kennamer, your head scientist.

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. For next year, the President's budget requests more than ½ a billion dollars.

The idea of cooperative conservation is growing and changing the way we think about conservation. The Partners for Fish and Wildlife program has more than 28,000 landowner partners.

Under the Agriculture Department, there are almost 2 million ranchers and farmers waiting to be involved in habitat restoration projects. Washington DC is not 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 anglers-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.

Since this administration began we have added 50 new hunting and fishing programs to our National Wildlife Refuges. You can now hunt on more than 300 of our 542 refuges.

For the first time ever, the refuge system now employs a Hunting and Fishing Coordinator, who will work with our refuges to provide quality hunting and fishing experiences for our visitors.

That is why on Thursday we completed the first session of a brand new three-day training program. It will educate Fish and Wildlife Service outdoor recreation planners and public use specialists on how to safely and successfully administer hunting programs on refuges. They will learn the history and culture of hunting in this country, and how much the support of hunters has meant to keeping refuges alive and growing.

You were instrumental a couple of years ago in helping us establish the first hunt at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland. Your Spring Wild Turkey Survey showed that the population could support a recreational hunt. [Steve Williams went to the first hunt and never saw a turkey.] In April and May, the Patuxent Research Refuge will sponsor its third wild turkey hunt.


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

Through this partnership a hunt for waterfowl in the Bombay Hook Refuge in Delaware last December made a difference in people's lives. 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.

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."

I think everyone would agree that giving a wounded veteran the opportunity to experience this great sport is work well done. I know you honored the veterans among you this morning and I think we all can give a round of applause to those who have answered a call from this nation.

We just last week signed a memorandum of understanding with the Outdoor Channel to promote outdoor recreation opportunities and wildlife conservation efforts. They will feature the work of the Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners, especially state fish and wildlife agencies. This is an exciting opportunity to reach out to the sportsmen and women who make up the more than 26 million Outdoor Channel subscribers.

To further illustrate how seriously we view hunting, the President's proposed budget has increases in almost all categories that affect fish and game. There is a more than $16 million increase in the North American Wetlands Conservation Act programs.

More than a million dollars has been added to the North American Waterfowl Management Plan; there is $2 million more for the Migratory Bird Program and almost $11 million additional dollars in State and Tribal Wildlife Grants that go directly to the states.

These are great budget increases. But I don't have to tell you that without hunting and fishing we could not do a large part of our job in conservation. It is the money you pay for stamps, licenses and excise taxes on gear that goes to both Federal and state conservation programs.

But conservation isn't just about money. It is about a love for the natural world and the yearning to keep it healthy for coming generations. It is why you as a federation work so hard to continue a growing wild turkey population and healthy habitats.

It is about the tradition of the hunt: the skill and daring and the communion with a fierce, elemental part of nature.
It is about caring enough to share that communion with a fellow hunter in a wheelchair.

The work you do in promoting the outdoor life is more important every year. I'm especially pleased to see you promoting the culture of hunting to children and to women.
My husband and I love to hike and I think your Women in the Outdoors program is a wonderful way to introduce more women to the incredible joys of outdoor recreation.

Also, for too many of our youth, fish is something you see in an animated film called "Finding Nemo." Hunting is done on a computer game-and too often people are the prey. An entire generation seems to think true wilderness is found on the television show, "Survivor."

Thanks to organizations like yours, who pay attention with programs like "JAKES", we have an opportunity to turn that around.

There is only one way to complete this speech.
[Use box to make wild turkey call.]

As Rob Keck says, "Thank you all for answering the call."