DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND D. NEAL SIGMON, KATHLEEN R. JOHNSON, ROBERT S. KRIPOWICZ, and LORETTA BEAUMONT, For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 78-059 0-94-1 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS KF27 •A6468 1994 pt:6 WILLIAM H. NATCHER, Kentucky, Chairman JAMIE L. WHITTEN, Mississippi, Vice Chairman NEAL SMITH, Iowa SIDNEY R. YATES, Illinois JOHN P. MURTHA, Pennsylvania W. G. (BILL) HEFNER, North Carolina BOB CARR, Michigan RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois ALAN B. MOLLOHAN, West Virginia MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio DAVID E. SKAGGS, Colorado DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina PETER J. VISCLOSKY, Indiana THOMAS M. FOGLIETTA, Pennsylvania ESTEBAN EDWARD TORRES, California GEORGE (BUDDY) DARDEN, Georgia NITA M. LOWEY, New York RAY THORNTON, Arkansas JOSÉ E. SERRANO, New York ROSA L. DELAURO, Connecticut JAMES P. MORAN, Virginia DOUGLAS "PETE” PETERSON, Florida JOHN W. OLVER, Massachusetts ED PASTOR, Arizona CARRIE P. MEEK, Florida JOSEPH M. McDADE, Pennsylvania C. W. BILL YOUNG, Florida JIM KOLBE, Arizona DEAN A. GALLO, New Jersey BARBARA F. VUCANOVICH, Nevada JIM LIGHTFOOT, Iowa RON PACKARD, California SONNY CALLAHAN, Alabama HELEN DELICH BENTLEY, Maryland JAMES T. WALSH, New York CHARLES H. TAYLOR, North Carolina ERNEST J. ISTOOK, JR., Oklahoma FREDERICK G. MOHRMAN, Clerk and Staff Director (II) 2.168 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1995 TESTIMONY OF PUBLIC WITNESSES FOR NATURAL Mr. YATES. This is the hearing on outside witnesses for the budget for 1995 for our bill. And the first witness is Mr. Havert. Hi, Mr. Havert. Your statement may go into the record at this point. TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1994. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT WITNESS BILL HAVERT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COACHELLA VALLEY MOUNTAINS CONSERVANCY Mr. HAVERT. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Bill Havert. I'm the Executive Director for the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy. I'm here today to speak in support of an appropriation for the BLM for $2 million for the Santa Rosa Mountains National Scenic Area. By the way, I want to thank you also for last year's appropriation for the scenic area for $1 million. The other day, I had the opportunity to go over to Explorers Hall. One of the exhibits over there had to do with the Florida Everglades, and was trying to tell the story of how they're trying to save really an entire ecosystem there. That got me to thinking that really that's what we're doing in Southern California. The Santa Rosa Mountains occupy about 400 square miles above the Palm Springs-Coachella Valley area, and then immediately south of the Santa Rosa Mountains is the Anzo Desert State Park, which stretches all the way to Mexico. So in effect, this is really an international ecosystem that we're working on preserving, and I thought maybe especially on a nice snowy day like this you might enjoy looking at a few pictures of another climate, a little bit different ecosystem out there. Mr. YATES. Southern California. Mr. HAVERT. Southern California. Sunny today. Mr. PACKARD. Beautiful country, Mr. Chairman. [Laughter.] Mr. HAVERT. And in addition, by the way, to the preservation effort that we're attempting to do in the Santa Rosa Mountains, we've actually begun recently the development of a Coachella Valley multi-species habitat conservation plan, which includes also the (1) valley floor and the mountains on the other side of the Coachella Valley. So what we're really working on now is a preservation effort that addresses six endangered species, four species currently proposed for listing, and several dozen candidate species. And we're trying to do that proactively with all the various local, state and Federal agencies and the private interests in the area, too, so that we don't go through some of the problems that we know come with listing of an endangered species. The Conservancy itself is a partnership agency and we have representatives on the governing board from each of the cities in the Coachella Valley, the county board of supervisors, and then all of the state and Federal agencies with land management responsibilities in the mountains around the valley. There are six agencies altogether, including both BLM and the Forest Services. And one of the things that we've done since the conservancy was formed in 1991 is work with all of the agencies to develop a strategic acquisition and funding plan for the entire mountain area around the valley. And it details the funding partnerships and the acquisition partnerships and in different areas or different combinations. Sometimes the major partners are the local cities in the Conservancy, sometimes it's state agencies, sometimes it's Federal agencies. And we have launched what we call Mountains 2000, which is the effort to acquire all of the key private in-holdings left around the valley by the year 2000. It's an ambitious project, but we have some Mr. YATES. How much money will it take? Mr. HAVERT. It looks like about $62 million in total. And we have a couple of local efforts, one is a major bond measure that will be on the ballot in June, which if successful-it's a statewide measure would provide $18 million to the Conservancy over a period of a few years for acquisition. In addition, there is a major regional landfill being cited not too far from there, and there is a $1 per ton mitigation fee that goes with that which is also set aside for acquisition. So we have some significant local funding sources that we expect to come on line in the near future. The bond measure will also give the state some money to spend again. Right now, it's pretty well exhausted. And then we envision the state continuing to play a role over the next six years to help as well. What we really need for fiscal year 1995 is a result of one of the things the Conservancy can do that BLM can't do or that the Forest Service can't do, and that is, we can take options to purchase on property, and we've done that on a piece, about 3,000 acres, that's in what's known as the Palm Canyon watershed, which is the very heart of the national scenic area, and it's critical habitat for bighorn sheep. It's the area most threatened with development potential in the mountains. And this acquisition will go a long ways towards consolidating the public holdings up there in a really critical area. It contains not only bighorn sheep habitat, but you've got palm oases, and tremendous cultural resources and recreational opportunities. |