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American Morning

This Veteran's Day Weekend, National Parks Taking Part in Event Aimed to Build Hope and Strength

Aired November 09, 2001 - 10:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This Veteran's Day weekend, national parks and other recreational areas are taking part in an event aimed to build hope and strength. A look now at a public service announcement -- we call them PSAs -- from the Interior Department on the three-day event that kicks off soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GALE NORTON, INTERIOR SECRETARY: Hello, I'm Gale Norton. This Veterans Day weekend, all Americans are invited to visit their national parks and all of our special places. Together, we can draw strength from our national icons and hope from the enduring beauty of nature.

To learn how parks and other special places can provide unity, hope and healing this weekend and all year long, please visit our web site.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: And now joining us live from New York to talk more about the "National Weekend of Unity, Hope and Healing," as its titled, the interior secretary Gale Norton with us.

Secretary Norton, good morning to you. Nice to have you with us.

NORTON: Good morning.

HEMMER: Why the push right now?

NORTON: This is something that certainly was an outgrowth of the September 11th attacks. We found that so many people wanted to go to the areas close to their home where they could be outdoors and just get away from the stress that they might feel otherwise. And we also found that people wanted to go visit our patriotic sites. This was a way of tying that all together, to give people the opportunity to connect with why we're proud to be Americans.

HEMMER: We had some people off from AAA saying yesterday, they expect car traffic to be down around 6 percent. It doesn't seem too dramatic, but what do you seeing for visitors right now at the parks across the country? Is it down as well? NORTON: IT depends on the parks. Those that are close to urban areas are often having increased traffic over what they would have had last year. We are seeing in some of our more resort destination-type parks that visitorship is down. We certainly want to encourage people to go out, perhaps use this weekend as an opportunity to visit someplace they've never gone before. I've traveled myself a number of times on the airlines since September 11th. I know that the security has been ramped up, and people really ought to get back in the swing of things. We want to provide this as a way to help.

HEMMER: They're wonderful, wonderful great places. You're right.

Let's turn our attention to some other things. Some environmentalists right now expressing concerns in certain areas, in certain corners that as a result of the attacks of September 11th, the administration right now committing some sort of landgrab or something related to that, specifically in the Everglades of Florida this past week, shutting down, closing the federal office of Everglades restoration. Is there an argument right there, in effect, right now, that while things are so concerned and ramped up that some other things are sliding through?

NORTON: The Everglades situation is one that while we have three national park offices there. We have a number of other Department of the Interior offices. Our director of the National Park Service is from Florida. We simply felt that another office was not necessary, that we could save the -- over a million dollars we would have spent on that, and put into actual restoration of habitat.

HEMMER: At no cost to the environment in Florida.

NORTON: It enhances the environment, rather than hurts the environment, so we think it is something that it is better overall. It is supported by our people that are involved in this process on the ground, so we think it's something that will be beneficial.

HEMMER: Let's move you to the other end of the country, Alaska, and drilling in the national Arctic Wildlife Refuge there. Many people are now saying that as a result of the attacks of September, that there will be a greater push to drill there. Do you anticipate that, and right now, what do you sense from members of Congress who ultimately will have the final say on this frontier?

NORTON: The administration in it's comprehensive energy plan has always said that national security is one of the reasons why we need to have additional energy resources. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provides the largest potential source of oil in this country's future, and it gives us the opportunity to be able to say we don't need the oil coming from Iraq. We are now today getting 700,000 barrels a day of oil from Iraq. That means we are sending almost -- over $4 billion a year to Iraq. Instead, we could create jobs here in America. We could keep that resource here at home. And that's one of the reasons we think appropriate to look here in the United States.

HEMMER: I'm running out of time quickly. Don't mean to interrupt here. But ultimately, will this pass now, and does it have greater impetus?

NORTON: I think it does. There is a lot of support from the unions. We're having a lot of bipartisan work on this, and the president has said, emphatically, we need to get that done this year.

HEMMER: Thanks for joining us. Gale Norton, interior secretary, thank you for accepting my interruptions as well.

NORTON: Thank you.

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