The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“VIRGIN RIVER DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT PRESERVE ACT” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6093-H6095 on Oct. 2, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
VIRGIN RIVER DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT PRESERVE ACT
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2385) to convey certain property to the City of St. George, Utah, in order to provide for the protection and preservation of certain rare paleontological resources on that property, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 2385
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve Act''.
SEC. 2. VIRGIN RIVER DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT PRESERVE.
(a) Authorization for Grant To Purchase Footprint Preserve.--As soon as is practicable after the date of the enactment of this Act, if the City agrees to the conditions set forth in subsection (b), the Secretary of the Interior may award to the City a grant equal to the lesser of $500,000 or the fair market value of up to 10 acres of land (and all related facilities and other appurtenances thereon) generally depicted on the map entitled ``Proposed Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve'', numbered 09/06/2001-A, for purchase of that property.
(b) Conditions of Grant.--The grant under subsection (a) shall be made only after the City agrees to the following conditions:
(1) Use of land.--The City shall use the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve in a manner that accomplishes the following:
(A) Preserves and protects the paleontological resources located within the exterior boundaries of the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve.
(B) Provides opportunities for scientific research in a manner compatible with subparagraph (A).
(C) Provides the public with opportunities for educational activities in a manner compatible with subparagraph (A).
(2) Reverter.--If at any time after the City acquires the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve, the Secretary determines that the City is not substantially in compliance with the conditions described in paragraph (1), all right, title, and interest in and to the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve shall immediately revert to the United States, with no further consideration on the part of the United States, and such property shall then be under the administrative jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior.
(3) Conditions to be contained in deed.--If the City attempts to transfer title to the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve (in whole or in part), the conditions set forth in this subsection shall transfer with such title and shall be enforceable against any subsequent owner of the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve (in whole or in part).
(c) Cooperative Agreement and Assistance.--
(1) Cooperative agreement.--The Secretary shall enter into a cooperative agreement with the City for the management of the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve by the City.
(2) Assistance.--The Secretary may provide to the City--
(A) financial assistance, if the Secretary determines that such assistance is necessary for protection of the paleontological resources located within the exterior boundaries of the Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve; and
(B) technical assistance to assist the City in complying with subparagraphs (A) through (C) of subsection (b)(1).
(3) Additional grants.--
(A) In general.--In addition to funds made available under subsection (a) and paragraph (2) of this subsection, the Secretary may provide grants to the City to carry out its duties under the cooperative agreement entered into under paragraph (1).
(B) Limitation on amount; required non-federal match.--Grants under subparagraph (A) shall not exceed $500,000 and shall be provided only to the extent that the City matches the amount of such grants with non-Federal contributions
(including in-kind contributions).
(d) Map on File.--The map shall be on file and available for public inspection in the appropriate offices of the Department of the Interior.
(e) Definitions.--For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) City.--The term ``City'' means the city of St. George, Utah.
(2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of the Interior.
(3) Virgin river dinosaur footprint preserve.--The term
``Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve'' means the property (and all facilities and other appurtenances thereon) described in subsection (a).
{time} 1630
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walden of Oregon). Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen) and the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen).
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, a very unique thing happened a little over a year ago in St. George, Utah. That is in Washington County. There was a retired ophthalmologist by the name of Dr. Sheldon Johnson. He had some property to the east of St. George and wanted to level it. So he had a backhoe and all the necessary things, a front loader. He was working there, and he had gone down about 10 feet and all of the sudden he came to some very large flat rocks. He turned one over and lo and behold he found dinosaur prints like the one sitting right here.
This dinosaur print is one of the most unique ones that I think has ever been found in America. He was a little nervous about it so he kept turning others over. Before long there was actually dozens of dinosaur prints. There was not only prints like this one, but there was tail drags and the whole thing. He said, What have I found here? I found something quite amazing.
Paleontologists started coming from all around the world. In fact, over 50 countries have been here. They looked at these things and said, They have to be preserved. Dr. Johnson is sitting there, not knowing what to do with these things. He goes to the State and the State people say, That is wonderful. All the universities say, This is a wonderful thing to see. People come from France and say, This has to be preserved. But no one figures out how to do it because this is the up side of the print and not the down side. When it is sitting there, rain, wind other things start to erode it.
Dr. Johnson is sitting there with his wife. He has got literally thousands of people, over 150,000 people from 54 countries, standing there wanting to see this fabulous find of Dr. Johnson. How does he do it? The city said, Dr. Johnson, we would like to help you. The county says the same thing. The State says the same thing. So we took a look at it and said, If this is really the find of the century regarding this thing, something ought to be done.
As you know, our current President probably is not as inclined to make monuments as our past President, who was very good at making monuments. He could make 10 a day without any trouble whatsoever. But this President was not inclined to do it. He decided it should be done a different way. We thought maybe it would be a good idea if we made kind of a coordinated effort between the Federal Government, who in this bill is authorizing $500,000 to help out, the State of Utah, universities, and countries who have come up with a combined effort to be able to display these.
A lot of people have asked, Are there more? Well, there could be dozens of them for all we know. We are all nervous about turning over any more rocks until someone figures out a way to take care of these things. This is a good step forward without the Federal Government coming in with their huge resources and spending any hard-earned money we take out of the Park Service to figure out a way to do this.
This bill, H.R. 2385, as amended, would authorize up to $500,000 to the City of St. George to facilitate and purchase up to 10 acres of land where the footprints and tail drags are located for the protection of this resource.
Mr. Speaker, I think this would be a good thing to do. It is interesting to see how many people come to visit. You go down there and there are actually bus loads and bus loads of yellow school buses and children spilling out to see this. There are people coming in so that we have to have interpreters there to speak their language because they want to see this. So we do not really have a way to take care of this, and this is starting to get it going.
Dr. Johnson wanted to send this out to all the Members of Congress so they can see what it actually looks like to see prints. This is the first time they have even had the toe nails in the prints and the tail drags and things like that. This unique experience happened to this retired ophthalmologist 5 miles east of St. George. Now we have a chance to preserve this for time and all eternity, and people can come to see it.
I would suggest to the House that this is one of those better things that we could be doing right now to help out something that people will come from all over to see it.
Mr. Speaker, I think this is interesting because just outside of St. George this little thing has created worldwide attention. People from South Africa have come there, people from Brazil, people from Australia, New Zealand. We will now ask some of them to pony-up a few bucks to help this thing out.
Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that in September of 1996 the President created the Grand Staircase Escalante, 1.7 million acres; and all that money has gone into it and all that work has gone into it. In the short time this has been around, it has had a higher visitation than the Grand Staircase. Of course, there is nothing to see in the Grand Staircase but sagebrush, but maybe some people want to see that.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I am just as fascinated by this find as our esteemed chairman.
H.R. 2358, as reported by the Committee on Resources, is a bipartisan proposal to provide the technical and financial assistance for the preservation of important paleontological resources that have been found in the district of the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen).
The private property in question contains dinosaur tracks that have been seen that were discovered last year. It was evident from our hearing on H.R. 2385 before the Committee on Resources and the Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands that this was a very interesting and exciting dinosaur-related find. However, the original proposal to buy the site and give the land to the city of St. George, Utah, was highly unusual.
The administration, while generally supportive, also had a number of concerns with the bill as drafted.
The gentleman from Utah (Chairman Hansen) and members of his staff worked closely with the minority and the administration to address the concerns of the bill. As a result, an amendment in the nature of a substitute was adopted by the Committee on Resources that incorporated the suggestions made by the minority regarding the acquisition of this site, as well as the changes suggested by the administration.
I believe that the committee amendment significantly improves the bill and would provide a very efficient way to assist in the preservation of the unique and well-preserved dinosaur tracks in Utah. I appreciate the willingness of the gentleman from Utah (Chairman Hansen) and his staff to address the issues identified with his legislation. I support the passage of H.R. 2385 and commend our chairman on this project.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Radanovich), the new chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands.
Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, I lend my support to this bill. I believe it is a rare opportunity to protect these resources by creating a long-lasting public-private partnership that will protect these fossils, while at the same time provide opportunities for the scientific community to study these important findings and allow the general public rare glimpses into life during the Jurassic Period. I think it is exceptional that this is getting more attendance than the Grand Escalante Staircase Monument.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the passage of H.R. 2385.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson).
Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, today we have an opportunity to pass legislation that will truly preserve history. Not our history, but the history of the Earth over 200 million years ago, the history of the dinosaurs.
200 million years ago, scientists believe that the redrock desert of Southern Utah was part of a large shallow lake. Dinosaurs fed at the shoreline of this lake. They walked this Earth, and they left their tracks.
Early last spring, in a time far removed from the dinosaurs, a retired ophthalmologist living in St. George, Utah, began leveling out a part of his yard and discovered what is now being cited as one of the best collections of dinosaur footprints ever on Earth.
These 150 footprints show the tracks of multiple species of dinosaurs. They are detailed, revealing claws, three toes, and the joints where dinosaurs may have crouched down.
Paleontologists currently believe these footprints may be a record of the first meat eater in the dinosaur age and potentially include a previously unknown species.
Since the discovery of these tracks, Dr. Sheldon Johnson and his wife, LaVerna, have generously shown thousands of visitors through their property to see the tracks. In one 2-week period, over 12,000 people journeyed to Southern Utah to witness this amazing discovery.
Despite the individual generosity of the Johnsons, in the long term these tracks must be preserved. This bill will allow the appropriate preservation of these tracks in the necessary condition. It will help the city of St. George cope with the visitors, and it will leave a history of dinosaurs preserved for over 200 million years for many more generations to discover.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support this legislation, and I personally look forward to visiting this site often during my frequent trips to the St. George area.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2385, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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