Mr. JENSEN. It appears to me that the best we can do is to utilize the waste that we know goes on in the commercial fishing industry. As you say, about half the fish is thrown away and also the rough fish which are not fit for food. We dump that kind of fish back in the sea or we burn them up. It appears to me that this is where we can make some savings and possibly get an industry going, especially for cat feed and dog feed. Now you know people will pay a good price if you could prove that this is the best food in the world for that good dog and that cat. Ninety percent of the American people are either dog lovers or cat lovers. Mr. KIRWAN. Thank you for being with us today. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1962. BUREAU OF OUTDOOR RECREATION WITNESSES EDWARD C. CRAFTS, DIRECTOR JOHN F. SHANKLIN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR LAWRENCE N. STEVENS, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Mr. KIRWAN. Do you have a statement? Mr. CRAFTS. We have the justifications and a prepared statement, and I think it would be perhaps better just to put that in the record and make a few supplementary remarks. Mr. KIRWAN. Very well. (The prepared statement follows:) STATEMENT OF MR. EDWARD C. CRAFTS Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee to discuss the programs and fund requirements of the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation for fiscal year 1963. We are seeking a supplemental appropriation of $1 million. This amount, together with the $1,101,096 transferred from the National Park Service by the Secretary under authority of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1950, will enable the Bureau to organize and to begin operations on a reasonable scale. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation is a new Bureau. Its establishment was recommended in the report submitted to the President and to the Congress on January 31, 1962, by the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. The President in his special message on conservation sent to Congress on March 1, 1962, recognized the need for the Bureau and it was established by Secretary Udall on April 2. As a further step, the President, on April 27, issued Executive Order 11017 establishing a Cabinet level Recreation Advisory Council. Under that order, the Secretary of the Interior was made responsible, in consultation with other members of the Council, for developing methods and procedures for improved interagency coordination in the development and carrying out of national outdoor recreation policies and programs. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation was established expressly to provide the leadership felt to be necessary if outdoor recreation opportunities of adequate quantity and quality are to be made available to the American people. The establishment of the new Bureau provides an opportunity to bring new thinking and new methods to the field of outdoor recreation. It will serve as the Federal focal point for recreation, help to achieve coordination, and stimulate private, State and local effort. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation is responsible for performing certain functions in nationwide recreation planning and cooperation with States and local agencies heretofore exercised by the National Park Service under the act of June 23, 1936 (49 Stat. 1894) and for assisting the Secretary in carrying out other responsibilities in the field of outdoor recreation. More specifically, the Bureau will be responsible for the following functions: 1. Coordination of related Federal programs. 2. Stimulation of and provision for assistance to the States. 3. Sponsorship and conduct of research. 4. Encouragement of interstate and regional cooperation. 5. Conduct of recreation resource surveys. 6. Formulation of a nationwide recreation plan on the basis of State, regional, and Federal plans. The Bureau will not engage in the management of any lands, waters, or facilities. These functions will continue to be the responsibilities of the Federal resources agencies that now have these duties. The Bureau will have a headquarters office in Washington, D.C., and proposes to establish several field offices in various geographical regions of the country. The supplemental estimate which is before you for consideration will provide the initial financing for a program which, in my opinion, should result in action of direct benefit to the majority of the American people. It will enable us to make a first step toward providing more and better outdoor areas where the public can enjoy hiking, camping, fishing, boating, swimming, and other recreation activities. With funds provided herein, the Bureau will broaden the scope of the recreation planning and cooperative services, formerly conducted by National Park Service. The approach should be more comprehensive than that in the past. Planning and cooperative services heretofore have been primarily oriented toward the traditional concept of National and State parks-basically a concept of preserving certain parts of the landscape with the provision of recreation opportunities a secondary objective. While preservation of certain areas is essential and will be a part of the Bureau's planning, this is but a segment of the overall need. The Bureau will place its emphasis on meeting the needs of people-on finding ways and means of providing adequate outdoor recreation opportunities to all people throughout the Nation. This means a comprehensive approach that will involve consideration of many factors in addition to National and State parks. Such a comprehensive approach must take into account the recreation potential of all lands and waters, public and private. It must consider present and future needs for a broad variety of activities and attempt to balance these needs against the present and potential supply of recreation resources. The recognition given to recreation by many Members of Congress, by the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission by the President in establishing the Recreation Advisory Council, and by the Secretary in establishing the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation makes it timely to direct additional effort first to planning and thereto bringing into being adequate recreation areas. I have little patience with plans that do not lead to action. Planning and programing to me are primarily significant in direct relation to the results stemming from them. A further important responsibility of the Bureau is the investigation and appraisal of specific areas to determine their feasibility as national or regional recreation areas. The Secretary has already assigned to the Bureau the task of reviewing several of these. Among them are Allegash River area, Maine; Pictured Rocks-Grand Sable Dunes, Mich.; Whiskeytown Reservoir and related areas, California; Lewis and Clark Trailway; and Raystown Reservoir and Allegheny River Reservoir, Pa. In the area of Federal programs, the Bureau will serve as the focal point in correlating the programs of the various Federal agencies engaged in outdoor recreation to assure reasonable consistency in policies and avoid duplication and conflict. Proposed legislation and budget projections of Federal agencies, which have a bearing on outdoor recreation, will be reviewed and coordinated. These reviews, while necessary for proper correlation of efforts, will place a heavy and continuing workload on the Bureau that must be performed in a short period. In addition to the above, we are also seeking funds to initiate a research program to assimilate and interpret data on supply and demand, to reflect changing conditions, and to provide the facts needed for sound planning and administration. We propose to conduct an education and interpretation program through which we would provide technical and professional recreation-resource publications, reports, and materials to those engaged in recreation planning and to schools. Under this program, close coordination will be maintained with institutions of higher education to encourage the establishment of a 4-year college course leading to a professional degree in outdoor recreation. To carry out the programs set forth in the justification, it will be necessary to employ additional staff. I am well aware of the fact that this committee strives to hold down the level of Federal employment. I am also well aware of 89087-62- -19 the fact that the members of this committee appreciate the benefits the American people derive from our outdoor recreation. In order to do our job it will take a few skilled people. At the present time professional employees of this Bureau in the field, which were transferred from National Park Service, total less than one man per State. Obviously, little can be accomplished under such conditions. Because we are a new Bureau, we do not have the benefit of past experience in these programs to use as a guide in forecasting future operations. We have endeavored, however, to provide our best judgment of a reasonable and needed program level and staffing requirements. It is important to point out that the supplemental estimate has been tailored to provide financing for only part of a year's operations. We realize that half of the year will have elapsed before we may have completed establishment of field offices and that leadtime must be considered in recruiting the additional staff. These factors have been taken into consideration in arriving at the supplemental estimate of $1 million. NEW BUREAU ESTABLISHED Mr. CRAFTS. This is rather an unusual situation to come before a Deficiency Subcommittee. This is a new Bureau, a new organization which was started last April as a followup to the recommendations of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission with which I think you are all familiar. One of the recommendations of that Commission was the creation of a small organization within the Federal Government to carry on a number of functions, one of which was to be the coordination and correlation of the proliferating Federal activities in recreation to serve as a central focal point of responsibility within the Federal structure and to also serve as a central focal point of contact and technical assistance to States and local governments and eventually to private enterprise. It was too late to come before the regular Appropriations Committees. The bill had already passed the House before this organization was established. It was too late on the Senate side. And so the question of a supplemental request arose since we believed that the $1.1 million of funds formerly made available to the Park Service and which was transferred to this Bureau to carry on nationwide planning and cooperative activities of the States was inadequate to finance the work that needed to be done. For that reason we decided to come before this committee as we are doing this morning with a request for a supplemental. Mr. THOMAS. We are familiar with your activities. We started out with the Rockefeller Committee and we are familiar with the background. NUMBER OF JOBS How many jobs will they transfer to you with $1 million from the Park Service? Mr. CRAFTS. Sixty-one. Mr. THOMAS. Sixty-one or one hundred and thirty-three? Mr. CRAFTS. There are 61 people transferring from the Park Service. Mr. THOMAS. You have $1.1 million. Mr. CRAFTS. That is right. Mr. THOMAS. How many people does that give you? Mr. CRAFTS. It gives us 97. Mr. THOMAS. How many people will you get for this $1 million now? Mr. CRAFTS. 133. That makes a total of 230. Mr. THOMAS. You are going in business in a big way. Go ahead. Mr. CRAFTS. The principal reason for this supplemental is to carry out certain assignments made to us by the Recreation Advisory Council which was created by Executive order by the President as a Cabinet level council. They have met and asked us to do certain things for them. These things are enumerated in the statement in part. I will illustrate what some of them are. Mr. THOMAS. Put page 1 of the justifications in the record at this point. (The page referred to follows:) The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation was established by the Secretary of the Interior on April 2, 1962, pursuant to authority vested in him under Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1950. Its establishment was recommended in the report submitted to the President and the Congress on January 31, 1962, by the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. That report stated in part: "Providing adequate outdoor recreation opportunities for Americans over the next 40 years is a major challenge that will require investment of money, resources, and work. Leadership, vision, and judgment will be needed to guide this investment into the most efficient channels. The present uncoordinated efforts cannot do the job. There must be a new agency of Government at the Federal level to provide guidance and assistance to the other levels of Government and to the private sector, as well as within the Federal Government itself. * * * A Bureau of Outdoor Recreation should be established in the Department of the Interior." The need for the Bureau was recognized by the President in his message on conservation, submitted to Congress on March 1, 1962. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation will perform certain functions and responsibilities heretofore exercised by the National Park Service under the act of June 23, 1936 (49 Stat. 1894), although with a somewhat broader orientation, as well as assist the Secretary in carrying out the responsibilities assigned to him by the President in Executive Order 11017 for developing methods and procedures for improved interagency coordination of national outdoor recreation policies and programs. Specifically, the functions for which the Bureau is responsible are: 1. Coordination of related Federal programs. 2. Stimulation of and provision for assistance to the States. 3. Sponsorship and conduct of research. 4. Encouragement of interstate and regional cooperation. 5. Conduct of recreation resource surveys. 6. Formulation of a nationwide recreation plan on the basis of State, regional and Federal plans. Mr. THOMAS. In addition to the six items which make up what the functions of the Bureau are, can you add to that? Mr. CRAFTS. Yes, sir. One other thing is the function of providing staff assistance for the Recreation Advisory Council. Now one of the things they have asked us to do is to come up with a recommendation or recommendations as a basis for the administration to submit a program of user fees on Federal lands. This involves the Corps of Engineers, the national forests, the Bureau of Land Management, the Park Service, and so on. This is one job we are doing, a job of coordination. We have to develop a Federal recreation policy. There isn't any policy now and there are about 20 agencies involved. Another thing we are trying to do is to determine what the standards should be. |