It's not often that a conservationist has something positive to say about President Bush. But Fred Krupp, head of Environmental Defense, says the President's plan to designate the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve as a National Monument is creates the world's largest marine protected area:
It's as important as the establishment of Yellowstone.
[. . .]
Roger Rufe, president of The Ocean Conservancy, agreed the area was on par with Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. "Teddy Roosevelt is largely considered the father of our national park system," he added. With this national monument, "President Bush may be securing a similar legacy in our oceans.”
About the size of California, the national monumentwill be 38 times larger than Yellowstone, and larger even than Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It will consist of 139,000 square miles of largely uninhabited islands, atolls, coral reef colonies and seamounts, starting 160 miles west of Kauai, the remote 1,400-mile long string of islands extends to Kure atoll, west of Midway Island
President Bush is scheduled to announce the establishment of the nation's 75th national monument at a White House ceremony this morning.
This is a wonderful and important decision to protect the most intact tropical marine region under U.S. jurisdiction.
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