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Giant Sequoia Nat'l Mon. 4/14/00
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20014841
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Giant Sequoia Nat'l Mon. 4/14/00
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James (Terry) Edmonds' Files
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FOIA Number: 2006-0462-F
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
Subgroup/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting
Series/Staff Member:
Terry Edmonds
Subseries:
OA/ID Number:
17510
FolderID:
Folder Title:
Giant Sequoia Nat'l. Mon. 4/14/00
Stack:
Row:
Section:
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S
0
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TE
4-20-00
Final 04/14/00 10:30pm
Heather Hurlburt
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ANNOUNCEMENT OF GIANT SEQUOIA
NATIONAL MONUMENT
SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, CA
April 15, 2000
CLi
Speechwriting
4 - 20 00
Acknowledgements: Thank you, Alexander
Reed Krase. Alexander did a lot of the work to earn
his Eagle Scout status right here in these woods. I
also want to thank Secretary Dan Glickman; Art
Gaffrey; Marta Macias Brown. And let me recognize
Mike Dombeck, Chief of the Forest Service, and
Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources
and Environment Jim Lyons.
Almost 100 years ago, when Theodore Roosevelt
dedicated America's first national monuments, he
reminded us that we cannot improve upon our native
landscape; "the ages have been at work on it," he
said, "and man can only mar it.
4-20-00
What you can do is keep it for your children and your
children's children."
These giant sequoias are indeed the work of the
ages. They grow taller than the Statute of Liberty
and broader than a bus - they are the largest
living things on Earth. Sequoias are so perfectly
adapted to their environment that one has never been
known to die of old age many of the trees we
saw earlier are more than 1500 years old.
Once, sequoia groves flourished across
America's west.
2
EXPREDIDENT HAS SEEN
4-20-00 4
Today, they exist only here in the Sierra Nevada
mountains; America's second national park was
created in 1890 to protect them. Yet fully one-half of
the groves remaing lie outside the national park. And
although sequoias on federal lands are currently
protected from logging, the environment around them
must also be protected for the great trees to grow and
reproduce.
As we look toward the first Earth Day of the 21st
century, it is my great honor to designate the Trail of
100 Giants, the more sequoia groves, and
the magnificent forest that surrounds them as the
Giant Sequoia National Monument.
3
These lands will continue to be managed by the
U.S. Forest Service, as it once again embraces the
conservation ethic that inspired its creation 95 years
ago. More and more Americans are discovering their
national forests as places to hike, camp, ride horses,
or enjoy a few hours of quiet contemplation. Years
from now, Americans will come here to do all those
things, and these majestic trees will continue, as John
Muir said, to preach "God's forestry fresh from
heaven."
I know there are strong and conflicting views
about the best way to manage these federal lands.
4
Secretary Glickman recommended that they be
protected after careful analysis and consultation with
residents; state, tribal and local officials; and
members of Congress. The Forest Service will work
closely with the local community to develop a long-
term management plan for the monument. We want
to ensure that all interests are respected - and that we
help bring jobs and opportunity to the area. This is
not about locking lands up; it's about freeing them up
- for all Americans, for all time.
We are here because we recognize that these
trees, like life itself, are fragile.
5
The sequoia's roots are surprisingly shallow, and the
greatest threat to the tree's life is any disturbance to
the tenuous balance between the tree and the ground
that anchors it.
Thirty years ago next week, Americans came
together to celebrate the first Earth Day - because
they understood that we too have shallow roots on
this planet, and that our future depends on the
balance among all living things. The story since then
is a story of the American people's determination to
protect and preserve that balance.
6
4-20-00
In the years since 1970, we have cleaned up
many of our worst toxic waste sites and our
and
waterways, We have cut toxic factory emissions
almost in half and reduced the volume of waste we
produce to a twenty year low. The American people
have made environmental protection part of their
daily lives - and they have demanded that
government and industry act to protect our national
treasures.
I'm grateful for the opportunities Vice-President
Gore and I have had to act as stewards of our
environment. We adopted the strongest air quality
protections ever, improved the Safety of Durching H2O t Food,
7
4-20-00
3x
? We cleaned uplas many Superfund toxic waste sites
as the two previous Administrations combined.
We've made record investments in public
helped to provides a new of
transportation, and launched new the
sprawl that threatens so many Americans' quality of
to
to
globalwoung
life, We've helped hundreds of communities turn
dangerous brownfields deserted by industry into safe,
productive space. And with the strongest economy in
a generation, I believe we have put to rest decisively
the old idea that you cannot grow the economy and
protect the environment at the same time.
8
We need to keep that in mind as we confront
critical challenges on this first Earth Day of the 21st
century.
First, we want to make sure that our nation's
most beautiful places are preserved for our children's
children to enjoy. Our Lands Legacy Initiative
protects green spaces from the most remote mountain
to the nearest city park. This year, I have asked
Congress to provide $1.4 billion to protect special
places, including nearby Dillonwood Grove, the last
privately-held grove of giant sequoias. These funds
will also help states and communities pursue their
own conservation priorities.
9
There is strong bipartisan support for making our
Lands Legacy initiative permanent, and I am
committed to working with both sides of the aisle to
secure it this year.
Second, we need to invest in the future of our
environment not just at home, but around the world.
Tropical forests are home to more than half the
known species on Earth -- yet they are being lost at
the rate of more than 50 acres per minute. This year,
I have proposed a Greening the Globe Initiative, to
help developing countries protect their endangered
forests and better manage their natural heritage.
10
Of course, all these efforts to preserve
biodiversity will do us little good unless we act to
meet the greatest environmental challenge of our new
century - global warming. Scientists tell us the
1990s were the hottest decade on record. They also
say that the temperature rise is at least partly caused
by human activity, and that if left unchecked, global
warming will result in more storms and floods, more
economic disruptions, and more threats to unique
habitats such as the one where we're standing.
11
We have got to step up our efforts to cut our own
emissions of greenhouse gases and to work with
others around the world to introduce clean energy
technology. I urge Congress to drop its opposition,
and recognize that we have the technology to cut
emissions while making economies grow. Think
about this. We have the technology to reduce by 85
percent the amount of energy it takes to run a
refrigerator. We will soon have cars on the street that
routinely get more than 60 miles to the gallon. And
new technologies such as fuel cells and biofuels will
give us the equivalent of hundreds of miles from
every gallon of gasoline.
12
4-20-00
What would it mean for the health of our planet
if we could get that technology to developing
countries, where industry is booming and people are
lining up for refrigerators and cars? It would make
all the difference in the world. That is why I have
asked Congress for $2.4 billion to fund local, national
and international efforts to reduce greenhouse gases
and fund clean technologies, and to provide tax will
to thorutes Mosa MWN who buy clean energy products
For more than 100 years, starting with residents
of Visalia, California, Americans have fought to save
the giant sequoias and other wondrous pieces of our
natural heritage. Earth Day brought groups across
America together on a crusade to protect our planet.
13
Today, even here on the Trail of 100 Giants, the
global village presses ever-closer around us. We
must look beyond our borders for partners and allies
in the fight to combat global warming and preserve
for all our children our precious natural heritage.
Here today we do our part by ensuring that, long after
we are gone, these monarchs of the forest will still
stand tall - rooted strong in the web of nature that
sustains us all.
Thank you very much. [sign proclamation]
I4