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[ Home > Page 6: Restoring the Fountain of Youth, Part 1 ]
Page 6: Restoring the Fountain of Youth, Part 1![Page 6: Restoring the Fountain of Youth, Part 1]()
"Restoring the Fountain of Youth" Remarks of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt before the Everglades Coalition Naples, Florida on January 7, 1999
I am pleased to be with you once again to report progress with our great task of restoring the Everglades. The Everglades Coalition has consistently been a powerful force in setting directions and mobilizing public support for restoration. You are leading the way. I especially want to recognize and thank your chairman, David Guggenheim, for his leadership. My Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, Patricia Beneke, will soon be leaving the Interior Department to return to private life. Patty has chaired the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force with great skill and insight, and with the patience and goodwill needed to bring harmony out of such a highly motivated and diverse group. She will be missed, and we are all most grateful for her outstanding public service. Yet the stars are falling into alignment, for Patty's successor is a natural for the job. In fact she is here today, and I hardly need to introduce her, for she is known to all of you as a former Florida resident and Dean of the University of Miami Law School. Mary Doyle came to Washington as Counselor to the Secretary at the very moment of transition, and I am pleased to announce her appointment, beginning today, as chair of the South Florida Ecosystem Task Force. The year ahead, 2000, is a watershed where our decisions and renewed commitment toward common goals must converge. After months and years of steady progress, scientific study and assessment, we are now at the threshold of a momentous decision: Whether, and how, to provide the financing for a twenty year program of comprehensive restoration. That decision will be made in Washington by the Congress, and in Tallahassee by the Florida Legislature. But their deliberations will be heavily influenced by public opinion.
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