Alaska Lands Legislation Remarks During a White House Briefing.

Senator Tsongas, other Members of the Congress, Senator Mathias:

I mention them, because their amendments are going to be up very shortly- [laughter] —and they're our allies and friends and coworkers and cofighters for one of the most important decisions that the Congress will ever make and undoubtedly the most important decision on conservation matters that the Congress will face in this century.

I'm deeply grateful to Cecil Andros for the good work he's been doing and will do in the next few days. And I want to thank you, Mardy, for honoring me, in memory of your distinguished husband, Olaus Murie, who did so much for the Alaskan wilderness. And I want to thank John Denver and Tom Crum and Sally Ranney and Gary Herbert for this splendid bear. I've been standing right outside the door while John Denver talked, admiring it. And I want to guarantee you that we will provide a good home for it here in Washington and, also, we'll provide a good home for the other bear and wildlife throughout Alaska in the years and the centuries ahead.

It's important for me to point out to you, as the President of a great nation, how much your hard work and deep dedication and sometimes sacrificial effort have all meant to the present and future of our country. On behalf of all Americans who care about progress, who care about beauty, who care about wilderness, I want to express my thanks. As I've said before, preserving the priceless heritage of Alaska's natural resources is my own number one environment priority.

We've worked on this project to get good legislation for Alaska even before I was inaugurated as President. It's been the top effort of my administration in environmental subjects, and this goal that we have sought so avidly now seems to be within reach. The Alaska proposals that we espouse, joined by you in a remarkable show of unity, are the result of many years of careful drafting, intense negotiation, thorough debate, and close consultation.

The proposals that we support are balanced. They will close less than 10 percent of Alaska, as you know, to sport hunting. They will allow for a timber program which is adequate to maintain jobs and to provide for economic growth for that wonderful and beautiful State. Our proposal will also provide for American energy security by permitting 100 percent of the offshore areas of Alaska to be open for exploration and 95 percent in the promising land areas. Those areas that are restricted to oil and natural gas exploration are highly sensitive areas that must be preserved during the years ahead.

Unfortunately, the Senate bill, as passed by the [Energy. and Natural Resources] Committee, will upset the delicate balance between economic growth and progress on the one hand and protection and preservation on the other. It would actually reduce the overall wilderness and natural park area and the wildlife refuge acreage which is now protected. It would allow mining and sport hunting in the fragile gates of the Arctic and the Wrangell Mountain areas. It would compromise the natural forests of southeast Alaska. It would threaten the integrity of the Admiralty Islands and the Misty Fiords National Monuments, which I moved by Executive action to establish in 1978. It would endanger the William O. Douglas Arctic Wildlife Range.

We must correct these deficiencies in the Senate committee bill. That's our task during the next few days. It will not be an easy task. It will require, again, dedicated, courageous, tenacious effort and a high degree of accuracy and persistence in presenting our arguments to the Senators, many of whom have not yet deeply studied the issues involved. During this weekend and again early this morning, I have been calling individual Members of the Senate. Many of them say they will seek advice and counsel, as the debates and the votes progress this week, on what decisions they themselves will make on the five key amendments, which will restore integrity and balance to the legislation now proposed.

As you know, the House passed a good bill. But if we are to prevail, all of us must marshal our efforts to strengthen the bill in the battle before the Senate today and later on this week. Through the hard work of many of you here, through Senator Tsongas and his colleagues who are cosponsoring the five amendments which we are supporting, we need to establish these improvements. I will continue to do my utmost to this end. I will guarantee that we will marshal the full effort of all the members of my own administration, but your active commitment in the next few days—you and all those organizations and enlightened Americans whom you represent—will be the key factor.

The significance of this struggle goes far beyond the specific proposals that will be debated and decided this week. The underlying question is this: Beyond the immense beauty and the value of the State of Alaska, will we as a Nation have the foresight to safeguard now, and to prepare perhaps for additional developments in the future, as circumstances permit, for the benefit of all Americans and for the security of our own Nation, these valuable treasures in Alaska? That's a very important question, one that you and I must help to answer successfully.

Alaska's beauty and Alaska's diversity, Alaska's resources are, in a word, absolutely irreplaceable. Preserving them will require a special courage on the part of Congress, the administration, and all Americans. Many of you here were involved in this fight, in this effort, in this analysis, in this preparation long before I was elected President. Now we must join forces as a unified, dedicated team.

We simply cannot afford to be shortsighted. We owe our children and our country so much more. We owe our children and their children and our Nation our best. All of us should make and must make a unified effort to achieve economic development and progress for Alaska; that is not in doubt. But we must at the same time preserve the precious beauty and the valuable treasures of the United States of America, so vividly and specifically exemplified in the parts of Alaska that we are trying to protect.

You have a strong ally in the Oval Office. You can depend on me, and I, in turn, will depend on you for a successful effort this week and in the weeks ahead.

Thank you very much. God bless you all.