Political Quotes

“in 1985, when I was Governor of Tennessee, I got a call from Don Hodel, the Secretary of the Interior for President Reagan. He asked me to be the chairman of ORRRC 2, a follow-up (commission to the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, which was led by Laurance Rockefeller a generation earlier. I agreed in part because of my love for the outdoors, but also because Don told me that Gil Grosvenor would serve as vice chairman of the commission and Pat Noonan would serve on the board. The chance to work with them and the National Geographic Society made the request to serve as chairman of the commission even more attractive. My first act as chairman was to change the name from ORRRC 2 to the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors. The new name did a better job of conveying our mission: ``to look ahead for a generation and see what needs to be done for Americans to have appropriate places to do what they want to do outdoors.'' More than a generation has passed now, and on this 30th anniversary of the commission, we can look back on the recommendations of the report and take an assessment. Overall, the commission found that ``outdoor recreation occurs close to home, in or near towns or cities where 80 percent of us soon will live. So, more and more, the solutions must be found close to home.…”