For Immediate Release

July 17, 2002

U.S. HOUSE PASSES INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL
FUNDING NEW CULVERT PROGRAM; LAND ACQUISITIONS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives gave its approval to the Fiscal Year 2003 Interior Appropriations bill late Wednesday, endorsing funds that U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks added to the bill in June to remedy the salmon-blocking culverts on federal lands in Washington and Oregon.

            By a vote of 377-to-46, the House approved the bill, which appropriates money to the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service and to various energy conservation programs within the Department of Energy.  The measure includes the allocation of $20 million that Rep. Dicks added during subcommittee consideration of the bill in June for three federal land management agencies to improve fish passage.  The new effort follows the conclusion of a 2001 GAO report to Rep. Dicks estimating that more than 5,000 culverts on federal lands in the northwest may be blocking passage of threatened salmon species.

            The congressman, who serves as the ranking Democratic member of the interior appropriations subcommittee, said that this expanded effort was a prudent move, especially in light of the substantial amount of resources devoted to recovery of threatened and endangered fish after the salmon runs have declined.  The $20 million appropriation will be divided among the budgets of the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to be used to repair and/or replace any culverts that allow roads or trails to traverse streams, but which block the normal routes of salmon and other anadromous fish from spawning areas to open waters. 

            The interior funding bill passed Wednesday also represents another important step in funding the conservation spending program -- the third year in a six year effort begun by Rep. Dicks in 2000 to increase sharply the amount of federal funding available for new park and forest land acquisition, maintenance of public lands and wildlife conservation.

            For the next fiscal year, the bill designates a total of $1.44 billion for the conservation effort, representing a steady increase from the 2000 level of $752 million.  "This continually-increasing federal commitment is making a substantial  contribution to reducing the backlogged maintenance on public lands at the same time it has allowed us to address the need to acquire valuable new park and forest lands for public uses," Rep. Dicks stated.

            The legislation also addresses several other important pacific northwest land acquisition, salmon protection and land management priorities, including:

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