Hearing of Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to Receive Testimony of the President's Proposed FY 2006 Budget for the Dept of the Interior

STATEMENT OF HON. RON WYDEN, U.S. SENATOR FROM OREGON

Senator Wyden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Welcome, Madam Secretary. Let me start by saying that, with southern California under water and Oregon bone dry, this is
the year that the West has defied the Farmer's Almanac. I think what I would like to start with is your sense of what to do,
particularly in parts of the West like the Klamath, where I think we are just headed for very, very difficult days?

I read your testimony with respect to the Klamath and you want to have a water bank, which I am in favor of, but you
cannot bank water you do not have. So I think what I would like to do is start by seeing if you would be willing to commit
today to starting to put in place emergency measures for our part of the country for what is coming in terms of water.

Everything you have got here I certainly think is sensible and I have no quarrel with any of it. But I think we are going
to need some emergency measures, given the situation. It may not just be on the Klamath; it may be in eastern Washington as
well. But would you commit to start working with us now on emergency measures, given what looks to be a very, very dire
situation coming up?

Secretary Norton. Senator, I just talked yesterday with the head of the Bureau of Reclamation about the overall picture in
the West, where the rainfall is and where it is not. Klamath is certainly one of the areas that is a very dry area this year.
His feeling was that a water bank allows us to provide water for endangered species and so we are, from the irrigator's
perspective, in a regular shortage-type situation, a regular dry year, but not the same kind of conflict we had with the
endangered species situation in the past.

So we have moved past the huge crisis we had in 2001 through some of the steps we have been able to take, if the
current projections hold out. We do have increased funding in the 2006 budget for some of the projects in the Klamath area.
We are working on things like the removal of the Chiliquin Dam that would open up some additional areas of habitat and help
relieve some of the pressure. So I think we have been working toward an overall strengthening of the ecosystem within the
Klamath Basin that hopefully means we will not be in an emergency crisis situation for this year.

We certainly are happy to work with you to review the measures that we have planned and to look at the situation as
the year develops.

Senator Wyden. I would just urge you to do that, because I think, as I say, what you have listed here in a number of the
initiatives that you mentioned are useful, but every way I look at it there is too little water, too little snowpack, a very
dry summer ahead. I just want to make it clear today, given where we are the beginning of March, I would hope that you
would start looking at planning for an emergency situation.

If we do not need it, hallelujah and everybody will go away happy. I have a feeling we are looking at a very difficult
summer.

Let me ask you about another area that I have been interested in getting into and I want to start with your
appraisal on. That would be your sense of the state of America's parks at this point. You guys are 4 years into it now
and have had a chance to look at initiatives to deal with our parks. I understand my colleague from Wyoming asked some
questions about this.

Give me your sense, Madam Secretary, of what you think the state of America's parks is 4 years into your service?

Secretary Norton. We feel very good about the state of our parks. We have been working, first of all through increased
funding. The chart here shows the increase in park funding compared to the increase in overall Department of the Interior
funding and I believe overall domestic discretionary Federal funding. So park funding has increased considerably more than
funding for our other programs.

We are also working smarter. We have a better system within our parks today for being able to assess what needs to be done on maintenance needs and to see that funds are actually put into those projects that need to be done. We are doing the highest priority ones first. So it moves us away from some of the problems we had in the past of not really being able to
compare what one superintendent was telling us a problem was with what another superintendent was. We have now got a much more businesslike approach.

We are also looking at how we can be better and more efficient managers within the Park Service. The regional
directors have been looking at some ways to improve efficiencies between parks. For example, if you have two nearby
parks that each need an archaeologist, the practice in the past was always for each park to look only within itself at its own
needs. So each park would hire an archaeologist.

Today we are trying to look at whether one archaeologist might be shared between two parks. I think there are a lot of
possibilities by having a more flexible management focus to be able to manage the park resources better.

So I feel very good about what the park employees through their own enthusiasm have done in trying to improve management as well as some of the efforts we have made from the national level.

Senator Wyden. You mentioned that you have designated priorities in terms of the parks. Can you make that information
available to us? In other words, if you have a list of priority park improvements that is something that I think I and other
members of this committee would be very interested in. Can you get that up to us?

Secretary Norton. Yes, we have an Oregon-specific report that we have put out in the past that lists the projects that
are completed and under way and the ones that are coming up for the current fiscal year.

Senator Wyden. Maybe I am confused. Do you have a list of priorities for parks all across the country?

Secretary Norton. Yes, we do. It is a list--we have about 4,000 projects that are in the current timeframe.

Senator Wyden. I thought you had priorities, for example, like these are the first ten priorities for America's parks. Is
that something you have?

Secretary Norton. It is a much larger list than that. But we can provide you with some information.

Senator Wyden. I think it sounds very useful. I would just be interested in seeing the Department's priorities for the
parks in this country, in other words the ones that you think are the most important, because that is obviously something
important for the Department, and then obviously I would be interested in what kind of work you are looking at in terms of
Crater Lake and Oregon.

Secretary Norton. Let me clarify one thing----

Senator Thomas. Could we--the red light is on here.

Secretary Norton. All right. There are some things that--it is not necessarily a nationwide highest priority, because just
painting a historic building to prevent future degradation may be very, very important. So it's not just a pure single priority list.

Senator Wyden. Well, let us see what you have.

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_senate_hearings&docid=20826.wais