Million acres of public land and million more acres of private land. Is in excess of 900 billion which would make us equal to the 24th greatest corporation on the fortune 50 list. It is the greatest wildlife system in the world. That is able statement but it is easy to backup. And its absolutely true. This is built over the last 110 years over the efforts of american sportsmen and women. The states definitely have it writes. There are many many recreational assets and the recreation for the american sportsmen and Outdoor Industry is the wildlifebased agencies that provide for the management and the the most unique aspect of our statebased model is the significant portion of the state raised revenue stems from what we call a user pay system. This revenue is generated from sportsmen activities like hunting, fishing licenses, boating, fees. Revenue, or as it is more commonly known, the Sport Fish Restoration models. One of the most significant contributors is the lwcf. I will not dwell on this, as what the gentleman said was correct. We have seen considerable movement in the last 24 hours. It is very encouraging. Whether we will see this authorized before the september 30 deadline is yet to be seen but we are encouraged. Consider the following partial data relative to our activities in 50 states. Hunting, fishing and shooting sports alone represent over 2 million jobs. Anglers in the u. S. Spend in excess of 38 billion each year. Americans in total fish a combined 557 million days each year. One example of the trickle down i love this 1 anglers in the United States spend in excess each year of 290 million on ice. There are over 14 million hunters, 19 million archery shooters in the u. S. Today. Hunters alone spend 21 billion annually. Hunters alone spent over 600 Million Dollars on their hunting dogs each year. Sportsmen provide in excess of 3 billion annually for state wildlife cultivation and this comes through the wildlife tagging system. All of these require a vast and healthy landscape of public and private land. We cannot do it without the land. Combine the hunting, fishing, and shooting sports with these activities that take place primarily on public land sometimes on private. Birdwatching, mountain biking, four wheeling, snowmobiling skiing, and many, many more. One begins to see the wits and the depth and the significance of the outdoors, especially our resources of land, water, and wildlife. Most importantly, these resources are renewable and will contribute to state economy as long as man recognizes our role as the stewards of the land. It is our responsibility. The public and private land represents one of the most value for valuable assets we have and each state has its own unique outdoor assets contributing to their economy. We have the american sportsmen and women primarily to thank for much of this success. It is critical that we continue to use the model of conservation and do not fall prey to the lock it up and look at it preservationist model. Nature does not manage itself as long as man is here. Man has a significant stewardship responsibility. Excuse me. The cornerstone is the land phase management system. Primarily state wildlife and Natural Resource agencies are able to provide conservation and management of our Natural Resources, enhancement of wildlife habitat, they regulate and enforce management laws. They provide access opportunities through fees and revenues provided by sportsmen and women each year. I will close my remarks by outlining some of the many challenges i believe we face today. First and foremost, most all of our states manage fiscal challenges. We are well aware of that and we are very concerned about it. Today, we have a lakh of Adequate Funding for our public land management. We need more access to public lands and we need a corporate of planned between public and private landowners for more and better access. We need more statebased input into public land management. The new farm bill provides for some of that. I believe that governor bullock is involved in the project, at least one i am aware of, but the new farm bill does have provisions that allow for this and we would like to become more aggressive partners with a lot of states in pursuing these opportunities. We need more commonsense Environmental Policies and less policies with extremist agendas. We need congress to fund lwcf fully. Not just authorize it. We need it fully funded. We need coordination among all 50 states in recruiting hunting and fishing a must our youth. A number of ngos most all state Wildlife Agencies are part of it we need all of the efforts we can get today. Finally, local and regional management of our wildlife and public lands is more critical today than ever. It is the citizens within a given locale or region that give what is best for managing Natural Resources in their backyards. A onesizefitsall policy does not work today. We need to get our Natural Resource management back. This is one of the best ways to sustain rural areas and put it in the vernacular of nowadays, rural life matters and it absolutely represents a culture that we believe is country cannot lose and should not lose. Management is a must or more of our public land will deteriorate. These are a venue for the public Outdoor Industry. That is the end of my comments and i again appreciate the time to be here. Thank you. Thank you, david. My thanks, governor mead, governor bentley, governor tom lee titombley for being tomblin for being here. Wraps a beautiful bucolic outdoor scene like weve find ourselves surrounded with today outside anyway or perhaps it is a political ideology or political initiatives or environmentally focused initiatives such as recycling. And regardless of your political persuasion, there is something that i think that we do not talk about enough. What does think green really mean . Thinking green matters to everyone. That is the perspective i want to share with you today. When you think about green projects or environmental projects, so many people are dismissive of them as flop. 99 of environmental projects are construction projects. And the vast majority are from Economic Development. I wanted to show you one example of how an Economic Development project helped deal with the catastrophe that faced our state. In our experience, it stems from the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. As you know, in 2010, the deepwater horizon went down and the oil began to gosh. 68,000 square miles of ocean were eventually covered with oil. That is the size of oklahoma. What we began to realize it was an economic disaster. I worked with governor bentley and people along the alabama and gulf coast and throughout the gulf coast. We did not realize which a Clean Environment affected our businesses. You see, the businesses along the gulf did not really go anywhere. There were still restaurants there were still shops, there were still souvenir places. And they kept coming but people quit coming because of the damage to the environment. After cleanup, then we began to work to restore. The work began early on with cooperation with bp and we negotiated a billion dollars in early restoration funds through the Natural ResourceDamage Assessment process. And bp understood that if were if they were to fund the restoration of Natural Resources, they could protect themselves from liability and the federal and state trustees realized we could put that money to work. We could mitigate not only the damages, but the Economic Impacts as well. Of the billion dollars that was secured from bp, our state received 100 billion. Of the 100 million, we decided with the agreement of the other trustees that we were going to enhance our Gulf State Park. The Gulf State Park is located along alabamas gulf coast. It is 650 acres. From the white sand beaches to the coastal woodlands, the wetlands, the Natural Resources that were there were just waiting to be enhanced. As the governor said, we lost a lot since the 1970s. It was lost due to hurricane ivan. So, the question people have is why in the world are you using funds to do other enhancements to the Gulf State Park. The reason is it provides what we restore is not just Natural Resources, but the use of them. In order for Natural Resources to be appreciated, people have to use them. We see a history of building boardwalks and sidewalks and ramps so the people could get to Natural Resources. Our project is no different. What our project does is give the people of alabama the people of this nation and opportunity to access the Natural Resources. Not just for a minute, not just for an hour, but to stay overnight, to be one with the environment as they spend time on vacation or otherwise with the Natural Resources. Our project consists of five elements. One, enhancing the visitor experience, including an additional five miles of trails for biking, birding. This is an addition to trails that already exist. Areas to pause and take a break. The second element is to restore the dunes. That is clearly a Natural Resource that needs to be restored. What we have now is a berm. We built a berm to protect the highway that runs along the be from hurricanes. But firms do not firms do not survive naturally like dunes. We will restore 50 acres of dunes on alabamas gulf coast there any park. We will also build an environmental information center. This will serve as a gateway to the park, so people can learn more about these Natural Resources. After all, if we are going to reserve the outdoors, we have to educate people especially children, as to their importance. And that is a fourth element, creating an education and resource center. It will have labs. It will have dorm space, taking 12 students to come through these school year, to learn about our environment, space for them to get handson, to perhaps remove some of the species that have invaded the Gulf State Park and replace them with indigenous species, and finally to rebuild the lodge. The plan is to build a 350room lodge that is within the footprint of the lodge that has existed there from the 1970s, and also to create meeting space so people can have an opportunity to get together and meets, to create an opportunity to have space there as well. This construction project will cost more than the 85 and a half alien dollars we have secured. It will probably cost an additional 50 billion. We have plans to raise that financing through the state which is pending in our legislature now. But 35 million that is the construction cost. The impact is close to 300 million for our state. Over 160 million as a contribution for the Gross Domestic Product for our state over 79 million in earnings. That is just construction. Once it is built, you will see Economic Impacts substantially more. The potential Economic Impact will be 68. 2 Million Dollars each year for the city of gulf shores were the park is located in baldwin county. The project itself, directly and indirectly, through the jobs that will be created as the park is enhanced will support over 616 new jobs new jobs and 16. 4 Million Dollars in annual payroll. The annual offsite spending 14. 2 Million Dollars i the year 2020 and 19. 6 million in Economic Impacts from that point forward. So, you see in thinking green there is an additional green element to consider. Not just the Natural Resources but also the Economic Development. I will leave you with that thought. Something you already know, but as we share it, to think green differently. Thank you for that. Thank you to all of our panelists. I would like to thank the newest member of this committee, Oregon Governor kate brown. We are glad to have you with us. Now we would like to open up a meeting to any discussion, any questions from the governors comments . Thank you all three for the great presentations. We appreciate you being here. David, this is a question for you and i appreciate your presentation. One of the challenges, it seems that we face we recognize the hunters and those who fish they pay a lot of the bills in terms of wildlife, but there are many beneficiaries photographers, people would just want to hike, and we are looking at the state model how do we monetize some of that . How do we do that because we recognize too often it is just put on sportsmens shoulders to do that. We actually have gone to the general fund to do that. When we look at states, had we make sure that we continue this great model of conservation and continue to do the job . And the second question is continually we have programs i know other states do, as well. For the continuity of this, for us to go back, for those of us youve got to engage the next generation, youve got to engage the young people. I do not have any data on this, but anecdotally, we worry about our young people spending more time inside. What do we have to stimulate that interest . They spend time on their cell phones and they are entertained with something that is, in my view, not as valuable as taking a look outside and seeing the vistas in the wildlife. So, those are the two questions. Mr. Allen ok. I will do the second one first. We wrestle a lot with trying to crack the code with the kids today in the youth. That age group, 12 to 20, if you will roughly, their whole world is here, it seems like. Ive got two teenage sons and unfortunately, that is where they are at. I think one of the things we have learned is we have to make it more relevant in their terms which some of it has to go there in the delivery system. One of the encouraging things today is a lot of the young kids are kind of into their own little mini adventures, if you will, primarily driven by this so they can share with their friends and do what they do when they are doing all of that. So, we are trying very hard to figure out how do we do that . We spent a fair amount of money. We are starting to retain this old white guy here is not going to do it for them, and i and not relevant to what they are thinking. The path we are going down. That has every state represented. We are moving rapidly towards creating a campaign, which will be very similar to the boating taking the fishing, taking the campaign that has been running for some time now and we are trying to find what is that relevant message that will resonate with the kids and get them out and the outdoors . I dont have the answer to that today, beat to be totally honest. One of the things that is driving right now that is very interesting is called the Locavore Movement in some of our urban areas. That is, some of the twentysomethings, even thirtysomethings they want to know where their food comes from. They want to eat meat that they know where it comes from and they wanted to be organic. We live in montana and wyoming. I say locavore, and they are like, you are speaking a foreign language. In the urban areas it is happening more and more where they are deer hunting to provide their own food. Interestingly enough, one of the most high profile individuals is mark zuckerberg, who is the founder of facebook who does it. When he started talking about it it started getting attention. How do we embrace that in capture that and how do we make it more relevant . I live in billings, montana. I can go into a lot of schools in billings. West high, probably the largest high school in the state probably. You would not dare talk about hunting and fishing and whatnot. That should not the that should not be in montana. It is a reality today. We have to get around those issues if we are going to maintain, not only this culture, but what we have for resources. I am kind of getting off on a tangent. Its all related. It has to go into a bag that we address with you. Your other question about state models, state budgets being stretched and stretched and theres more and more demand. The new word today is a nonconsumptive species and whatnot. It is a real issue for a couple reasons. One, you have your key customer, your best customer is the hunter and the fisherman and they are scared to death they are going to lose their relevance and their seat at the table, if you will. And at the same time, you have the birdwatcher or the wildlife photographer and they are using as much of the resources as anybody else, and they are really not contributing to the management and the enforcement etc. We have to figure out how they do contribute, and we have to not resist as hunters and fishermen we have to not be afraid again, they say have a seat at the table. Im afraid the real seat at the table is the election every year. That is your seats. That is your voice is as citizen. To have them participate without having us give up what we have we being these sportsmen. That is the dilemma we have today. I am sitting on a council that is going through this. We have a meeting in august. How do we address that . What do we had then if i that will contribute to the state budgets, to help provide resources and help manage for them . It will take some willingness to give on both sides of that table for this to happen. What you guys did an wyoming a couple years ago when you are faced with that budget issue, i believe the general fund started to cover the retirement and benefits for your game and fish employees. It is something we have been talking about with montanas group and i think that is