U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of the Secretary

Stephanie Hanna and Paul Bledsoe


For Release: January 22, 1996

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt will be in Georgia and North Carolina this week for two days of events with churchgoers, soldiers, medical researchers, bass fishermen and others who are working to protect the environment around their communities. This is Secretary Babbitt's first Natural Heritage Van Tour in 1996. Last year, Babbitt visited environmental success stories in 24 states and 67 cities, highlighting the need to maintain strong federal standards which clean up and preserve the air, water and landscape across the country.

"I've visited over five dozen cities nationwide over the past nine months, seeing the clean rivers, lakes and revitalized communities that were produced by local leaders using strong federal environmental standards as their tools," Babbitt said. "I've talked to dozens of local people who believe protecting the natural heritage of their hometowns is an important value, like flying the flag in front of city hall or keeping the main street clean and attractive for business."

But Babbitt warned that the majority is Congress was intent on rolling back the very laws that enabled these successes, including the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

"Last year Congress planned a wholesale dismantling of the laws local people used to clean up their communities," he said. "They were more interested in changing the laws to benefit the lobbyists and special interests that contributed to their election campaigns. But the American people are finding out what Congress is up to. The people are saying no to the weakening of federal environmental standards."

Babbitt plans five stops in two days, Wednesday and Thursday, January 24 and 25. In North Carolina, he will fish for bass on Lake Wylie, near Charlotte, with members of the North Carolina B.A.S.S Federation. He will talk about the importance of maintaining clean water for recreation.

At Raleigh-Durham's Duke University Medical Center he meets with cancer patients, research scientists and the doctors who discovered taxol, an effective cancer fighting drug derived from the Pacific Yew tree, a species whose habitat is protected under the Clinton Administration's Northwest Forest Plan.

In Atlanta, Georgia he attends a potluck at the Peachtree Presbyterian Church, where he will address an interfaith congregation on the moral imperative of preserving the whole of creation, and the Endangered Species Act.

In Savannah, the Secretary will again affirm the fact that military training and endangered species can exist without disrupting important military objectives. At Fort Stewart, he will be briefed my members of the U.S. Army's "24th Mech," heroes of Desert Storm, on their efforts to provide nesting areas for clusters of red cockaded woodpeckers.

Babbitt will end this trip in Macon, meeting with local property owners who are in the process of drawing up habitat conservation plans with the government. The meeting will also include business leaders and local wildlife enthusiasts.

A specific media advisory will be issued for each event shortly.

-DOI-