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Bush Pledges to 'Restore and Renew'
President Visits Everglades in Effort to Improve Standing on Environmental Issues

By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, June 5, 2001

President Bush sought to defang his conservationist critics today by appearing among the 68 endangered species that inhabit the Everglades, the only place on Earth, as he put it, "where crocodiles and alligators live side by side."

"We're kind of hoping that's the way it gets to be in the United States Congress," Bush quipped, standing on a podium just feet from alligators wading in a slough.

Ultimately, however, it was not the alligator but the chameleon that was most on the minds of environmentalists today. They were looking for signs that Bush was becoming a deeper shade of green -- and the president obliged.

Bush has had a tense beginning with conservationists after reversing a number of Clinton administration rulings and producing an energy plan heavy on production. The National Parks Conservation Foundation gave Bush a "D" and scolded him when he visited Sequoia National Park in California last week.

Wearing gray but talking green, Bush spoke of the dangers of losing the "sparrows and wading birds, panthers and bears who live here" in the park. "We must meet the demands of growth, but without harming the very things that give Florida and the Everglades their beauty." The president, as he has before, proclaimed "a new environmentalism for the 21st century," and reiterated his proposed 36 percent increase in next year's budget for Everglades restoration.

"The federal government has clear responsibility in the Everglades, as in each of the nearly 400 other national parks," he told the 100 invited guests seated on wooden benches. "My administration will restore and renew America's national parks."

Bush's words won grudging approval from one critic, Mary Munson, Florida director of the National Parks Conservation Foundation. She said she was "delighted" with Bush's appointment, announced today, of Fran Maniella, Florida's director of state parks, to head the National Park Service. But Munson said Bush's proposed $219 million for the Everglades is less than President Clinton proposed last year. "He's not really asking for any new money -- it's a shell game," she said.

It was the first time since the disputed presidential election that Bush came to South Florida, a region that heavily backed his opponent. Environmentalists who came to protest Bush's appearance were kept miles away from the event in a "free speech area."

Still, a few skeptics were invited to Bush's speech. Shannon Estenoz, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Everglades program, pressed Bush after the event about offshore drilling in Florida waters, something the administration is considering but even Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, opposes. "I told him the only drilling we like in Florida is dental drilling," Estenoz said. Bush's response: "I hear you." But Bush made no promises on that subject.

Nor would Bush make commitments about the use of Homestead Air Force Base near the Everglades. Environmentalists oppose using it for commercial aviation, a position the Clinton administration shared. Audience members wearing pins protesting a Homestead airport pressed Bush on that question, too. He told them he hadn't been briefed on the topic.

Bush, who toured part of the Everglades where farmland is being restored to its wild state, met later today in Miami with Catholic Archbishop John Favalora, who has already visited the White House, and with 60 Hispanic community leaders. He then headed for Tampa and a rally to celebrate his tax cut victory -- complete with another of his "tax families," the model families who will benefit from his tax cut.

On a day heavy on imagery but light on policy details, the greatest suspense seemed to be whether the president would have a close encounter with an alligator, who, its snout above the water, watched him deliver his speech. "He listened very attentively," Bush counselor Karen Hughes said. "He was mesmerized."

Whether the alligator was captivated by Bush's words or merely saw him as lunch fare could not be learned. But as the reptile drifted back to watch Bush greet the audience after his speech, press secretary Ari Fleischer saw a potential Republican in the large lizard. "It's very close in Florida," he said. "Every vote counts."