ARTS, CULTURE AND RECREATION 

AMERICAN HERITAGE RIVERS INITIATIVE

WHEREAS, President Clinton announced last year creation of the American Heritage Rivers Initiative; and

WHEREAS, the American Heritage Rivers Initiative’s objective is to enhance our citizens’ enjoyment of the historic, cultural, recreational, economic and environmental value of our rivers and to protect the health of our communities; and

WHEREAS, the White House Council on Environmental Quality is responsible for directing the American Heritage Rivers Initiative; and

WHEREAS, the 126 local community river partnerships from across the nation which developed and submitted applications for consideration as one of 10 rivers to be designated as an American Heritage River; and

WHEREAS, concerns about local land use control, water rights, stream flows and federal control have been satisfactorily answered by the White House Council on Environmental Quality through a broad based, nationwide year-long public hearing and review process including elected and appointed officials, local communities, interested organizations and individuals; and

WHEREAS, local community river partnerships have the option to pull out of the program if the aforementioned concerns develop after designation; and

WHEREAS, the American Heritage Rivers Initiative is a partnership between the federal government and the people who enjoy the many values of our rivers as well as reflects the values and desires of local communities; and

WHEREAS, President Clinton has directed his Cabinet to refocus programs, grants and technical assistance in a number of departments to provide special support to American Heritage Rivers and each community supporting an American Heritage River will be given resources to catalyze their community’s work on behalf of a restored, revitalized river; and

WHEREAS, communities have nominated outstanding stretches of river for consideration as American Heritage Rivers and included information on the importance of these stretches of river to the nation’s culture and history, to past and future economic development and to public health and environmental quality,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports the President’s American Heritage Rivers Initiative and applauds the President for bringing national attention and resources to the creation of preserved river environments; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges the President to select rivers for designation from the rivers nominated by the Advisory Committee in addition to our finalist rivers based on the technical merits of the individual applications which reflect broad based local community support; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Administration review the process for future American Heritage Rivers designation to assure that all rivers are evaluated fairly based on the technical merits of their applications and strong evidence of broad based local support; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges the Administration to provide technical assistance and funding through existing programs for the nominated rivers and the other finalist rivers.