Larry Craig: “The National Association of Mining Districts, a group that I worked very closely with in California; the mining…”

“The National Association of Mining Districts, a group that I worked very closely with in California; the mining interests that employ thousands and thousands of people in the desert. But another group that really went unspoken to in a lot of this was the California Outdoor Recreation League, off-road vehicle people. When we were in Palm Springs several years ago holding hearings, we met with thousands of these people who pour out of the urban areas of the Los Angeles basin into the deserts of California on a weekend basis to recreate on their RV's and get out into the countryside. Much of this land has now been taken off limits to that kind of recreation. And that is a disappointment, because public land and public land resources, while we ought to protect them, also ought to be able to be utilized by people instead of telling the American public 'No, that is off limits. You can't touch it.'”