which are strictly horse parks; they set things up for horseback riding people so that they go there and nobody else comes into those areas. They are required to clean them up and things like that, but they have different things set up for different people. Mr. MELCHER. The gentleman from Ohio.

Mr. REGULA. Just one comment.

I compliment the gentleman from California on his support of good land use planning on behalf of the State of California.

Mr. KETCHUM. That does not necessarily, for the record, include my support of H.R. 10294.

[General laughter.]

Mr. KETCHUM. That is precisely what we are aiming at, Mr. Regula, that the States and local areas can probably do it far better than the Federal Government.

Mr. REGULA. We want to give them some financial assistance.

Mr. KETCHUM. Very little financial assistance. The State of California is willing to put up its share.

Mr. MELCHER. Thank you very much, Bill.

Mr. KETCHUM. Thank you.

Mr. MELCHER. Our next witness is Hon. Robert Mathias, from the great State of California.

Bob, welcome to this committee. I have the pleasure of serving on the Agriculture Committee with you, and I am glad to have you over here testifying before us on the Public Lands Subcommittee.

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT B. MATHIAS, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE 18TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Mr. MATHIAS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Before I present my testimony, I would like to ask if my colleague from California. Andy Hinshaw, could submit a statement for the record at a later time.

Mr. MELCHER. Certainly. The record will remain open, and we will be delighted to accept Congressman Hinshaw's testimony.

Mr. MATHIAS. Also at this time, I do have a statement from another colleague of mine, B. F. Sisk, who is chairman of a subcommittee being held at this time and has to be there. So I would like to give his testimony to the subcommittee at this time.

Mr. MELCHER. Without objection, Congressman Sisk's testimony will be made a part of the record immediately following Congressman Mathias's testimony.

And also, I will submit without objection the testimony of our colleague Jim Corman; of our colleague Ronald Dellums; and ranking member of the full committee, our colleague Craig Hosmer, as part of the record immediately following Bob Mathias's state

ment.

Hearing no objection, so ordered.

Mr. MATHIAS. Mr. Chairman, I have a lengthy testimony, but at this time I would just like to comment on a portion of it, if I could. Mr. MELCHER. Without objection, Bob's entire statement will be made a part of the record at this point, as though read.

Hearing no objection, so ordered, and you may proceed, Bob. [The prepared statement of Hon. Robert B. Mathias follows:]

STATEMENT OF HON. BOB MATHIAS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Mr. Chairman, I am grateful to the Public Lands Subcommittee of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee for conducting hearings today on legislation dealing with the California Desert. The Committee is aware of the fact that I introduced legislation in 1971 to implement and fund the California Desert Management Plan written by the Bureau of Land Management after three full years of study. In March, 1973, I re-introduced this bill, H.R. 5288, after additional study and input had been made to update the plan. I am pleased that 34 of my California colleagues have joined with me in sponsoring this important legislation.

I want to take this opportunity to commend the Committee for conducting these hearings on important legislation to provide the Bureau of Land Management with a single, up-to-date statutory authority to manage and protect our national resource lands. Passage of the National Resource Lands Management Act would greatly increase the effectiveness of BLM's ability to manage our public lands and resources. However, there would still remain the critical need to designate the California Desert as an area unique in the United States. An area which requires special consideration for several years in the future.

The California Desert is a land with many facets and an area of national significance. It covers 48,000 square miles in the southeast section of California and stretches from the Mexican border north to the Death Valley National Monument and from the Colorado River west to the borders of Los Angeles.

Although once considered a wasteland, the desert is actually rich in a multitude of resources. It is a storehouse of wealth, capable of serving many needs and many uses. Even though the area to be covered by the legislation is located within the State of California, there is a substantial national interest in protecting the California Desert. This national interest may be more important than that which placed Yosemite, Yellowstone and other scenic areas within the National Parks System. As a result of the hearings conducted by this Subcommittee in California, I know that you are aware of the beauty of the desert. However, the natural resources which are there make specific protective legislation even more important.

Because the desert is so vast, one would believe that its resources would always be preserved. In actuality, the desert is very fragile, not unlike other segments of our environment, and its resources are, indeed, exhaustible. Perhaps nothing contributes more to the fragile nature of the California Desert than its shallow soil mantle. Although some desert soils are extremely productive, intrusion by man can destroy the potential.

Over 700 species of flowering plants grow in the California Desert, many of which are unique. More than 217 of these plants are found nowhere else in the world. These plants can provide scientists with data of incalculable value as to plant evolution. Further, the use of these plants for medical research has tremendous potential. And, we must not overlook the magnificent scenic beauty of the desert when the wild flowers are in full bloom.

Some fifty different minerals can be found in the California Desert. The California Desert area is the only American source for a number of the minerals which are used in industry today. For example, the type of fine dirt used in the manufacture of color televisions can only be found in this country on the California Desert. The economy of the United States is boosted each year by over $160 million as a result of mining operations in this desert.

The desert area is the home to a fascinating and varied array of wildlife including some native species threatened with extinction. On a wildlife trip through the desert one might expect to see bighorn sheep, Gabel's quail, coyotes and even kangaroo rats.

The desert provides vegetation which is valuable for livestock grazing, although admittedly the amount of vegetation is dependent upon the unpredictable and generally scant rainfall.

The sheer largeness of the desert and the multitude of resources provides nearly unlimited recreational opportunities which are enjoyed by millions of

visitors each year. This activity, unfortunately, endangers the historical and archaeological treasures which abound in the desert, as well as the environment. Many of the ancient Indian writings which are in jeopardy of being damaged and stolen can provide this nation with boundless information about the first American inhabitants. They must be protected.

This legislation concerns approximately 12 million of the nearly 17 million acres in the California Desert. The portion which is not included consists not only of privately owned land and state property, but also a number of federal establishments currently being used as weaponry testing sites. This use by the United States must not be allowed to spill over into the remaining desert lands. The federal government has an obligation to see that it is not responsible for further degradation of the California Desert.

The California Desert, once an unfriendly barrier which American pioneers had to cross to reach the gold fields of California, is now symbolic of a growing national need for more recreation areas which must be developed with great emphasis on conservation and protection of our environment.

The ecologists know that we depend upon the land for our existence. The social scientists have learned in recent years that we also depend upon land for its therapeutic powers. The open spaces clear our minds of too much city and too many people. Not unlike the pioneers, our people today are placing a greater. and greater premium on being able to find that which can best be termed, "room to roam."

The need for open space is receiving much attention in our great cities, as it well should. Parklands in and near urban centers are important, but millions of Americans want and need wide open spaces, where a person can stretch physically and spiritually.

Such an area lies within minutes of 10 million people. Since the California Desert is so big, so vast, there appears to be room for everyone and everything. We should not be lulled into inaction by failing to recognize that such a notion is illusory. Actually, our people have played tic-tac-toe on a substantial segment of the desert region for the past one hundred years. The land is repetitively scarred with ever-increasing roads, trails and utility rights-of-way, pockmarked by past, present and speculative mining operations, desecrated by substandard construction, littered with trash and debris, and plundered of its natural and scientific resources.

Because of the destruction of the desert's resources and the tremendous increase in the recreational use of the California Desert, the Bureau of Land Management began a study of the vast area in the mid-1960s. The results of the first phase of this study were astounding. People were using the desert by the hundreds of thousands, seeking a tremendous variety of outdoor recreational experiences. Even the most foresighted conservationists could not have dreamed of a day when Americans would be spending more than a million visitor days each year roaring across the open desert on motorcycles and in off-road vehicles for sport and fun. The study demonstrated that increased leisure time and new technology have opened the desert to uses never before imagined possible. All of this has increased stress on the fragile environment by placing the demand for use of the resources in direct conflict with the need to preserve those same resources.

The BLM discovered that antiquated notions had to be discarded and old laws and regulations which did not address themselves to the current problems needed to be replaced. The Bureau was faced with the problem of planning for the management of the desert lands before the area suffered irreparable damage.

The result of their quandary was a plan of action, developed with the assistance of many capable experts on the subject of the desert, to balance the needs of the people with the protection of the natural resources.

The legislation my California colleagues and I have introduced will give the BLM the authority and the money to make the plan work. The bill would establish the California Desert National Conservation Area and provide for the immediate and future protection, development and administration of the public domain lands while assuring a program of multiple use, sustained yield and maintenance of environmental quality.

Further, this legislation directs the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a long-range program for management, development and use of the desert. This plan would have to be completed within five years from the date the bill

becomes law. In the meantime, the Secretary would be responsible for implementing an interim program to manage and protect the desert's resources, to provide for the public use of the desert, and to protect the public from the health and safety hazards present in the desert.

Sufficient funding from the Congress will be necessary for BLM to achieve the goals and objectives of the California Desert Management Plan. My legislation would provide the adequate appropriation to do precisely that. I am certain that representatives of the Bureau will give testimony during your hearings which will explain in detail the amount of money needed for both the present and for the long-range program.

I cannot overemphasize the present critical need for this legislation. Enactment of this bill is urgently needed because of the special and unique problems in the California Desert. Unless we are willing to look ahead to understand and appreciate the current and rapidly increasing pressures on the desert lands and provide wise management for their use, we may very well lose the natural, scientific, economic, and social resources which are there.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton spoke out on the need for action to protect and enhance the desert in July of 1971. At that time he said, "There is need for a program that will give us an opportunity to protect the California Desert and its resources."

In his statement, the Secretary said, "The very values people seek on the desert are being degraded. Wildlife habitat is being diminished. Vegetation and soil mantle are being damaged by indiscriminate off-road vehicle use, improper grazing, careless mining operations, and unplanned construction, including road building."

There are other bills which have been introduced by California Congressmen which are designed to protect the California Desert. Thirty-nine of my colleagues in the House from California have either authored or co-sponsored such legislation. It is no secret in the Congress that the California delegation has such unanimity on a piece of legislation but rarely. On the Senate side, both of the California Senators are working for passage of similar legislation. Although there are differences in the way in which several of my California colleagues approach the problem, there is no difference in the fact that we must protect the California Desert and provide for its special needs. The bill I introduced is based precisely on the BLM management study and I believe that it provides the most efficient solution to the problem. However, the important thing is the passage of legislation. And, as you can see, there is a bipartisan effort to save the California Desert for generations to come.

My legislation has won the support of the Legislature of the State of California, the California Fish and Game Commission, the Inyo County Board of Supervisors, and the Kern County Board of Supervisors. A number of influential private organizations have endorsed the bill. Included are the National Wildlife Federation, the California High Desert Resource Conservation and Development Project Committee, Sportsmen's Council of Central California and the California Wildlife Federation.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, we cannot afford to lose the resources or sacrifice the potential of the California Desert. We must seek to understand the total desert environment so that we can use it wisely. We can only enjoy its benefits when we are assured that we can protect its values. I urge this Subcommittee to report a bill which will provide for the present and future needs of the California Desert.

Mr. MATHIAS. Mr. Chairman, the legislation that my colleagues and I have introduced will give the BLM the authority and money to make the plan work.

The bill would establish the California Desert National Conservation Area and provide for the immediate and future protection, development, and administration of the public domain lands. while assuring a program of multiple use, sustained yield, and maintenance of environmental quality.

Further, this legislation directs the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a longrange program for management, development, and

use of the desert. This plan would have to be completed within 5 years from the date the bill becomes law. In the meantime, the Secretary would be responsible for implementing an interim program to manage and protect the desert's resources; to provide for the public use of the desert; and to protect the public from the health and safety hazards present in the desert.

Sufficient funding from the Congress will be necessary for BLM to achieve the goals and objectives of the California desert management plan. My legislation would provide the adequate appropriation to do precisely that. I am certain that representatives of the Bureau will give testimony during your hearings which will explain in detail the amount of money needed for both the present and for the longrange program.

I cannot overemphasize the present critical need for this legislation. Enactment of this bill is urgently needed because of the special and unique problems in the California desert. Unless we are willing to look ahead to understand and appreciate the current and rapidly increasing pressures on the desert lands and provide wise management for their use, we may very well lose the natural, scientific, economic, and social resources which are there.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton spoke out on the need for action to protect and enhance the desert in July of 1971. At that time he said:

There is need for a program that will give us an opportunity to protect the California desert and its resources.

In his statement, the Secretary said:

The very values people seek on the desert are being degraded. Wildlife habitat is being diminished. Vegetation and soil mantle are being damaged by indiscriminate off-road vehicle use, improper grazing, careless mining operations, and unplanned construction, including road building.

There are other bills which have been introduced by California congressmen which are designed to protect the California desert. Thirty-nine of my colleagues in the House from California have either authorized or cosponsored such legislation. It is no secret in the Congress that the California delegation has such unanimity on a piece of legislation but rarely. On the Senate side, both of the California senators are working for passage of similar legislation. Although there are differences in the way in which several of my California colleagues approach the problem, there is no difference in the fact that we must protect the California desert and provide for its special needs. The bill I introduced is based precisely on the BLM management study, and I believe that it provides the most efficient solution to the problem. However, the important thing is the passage of legislation. And, as you can see, there is a bipartisan effort to save the California desert for generations to come.

My legislation has won the support of the Legislature of the State of California, the California Fish and Game Commission. the Invo County Board of Supervisors, and the Kern County Board of Supervisors. A number of influential private organizations have endorsed the bill. Included are the National Wildlife Federation, the California High Desert Resource Conservation and Develop