H-3949.1  _______________________________________________

                     HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4029

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1998 Regular Session

By Representatives Buck, Schoesler, Pennington, Honeyford, Carrell, Radcliff, Benson, D. Schmidt, Koster and Sump

Read first time 01/14/98.  Referred to Committee on Natural Resources.

Regarding the Olympic National Park as a Biosphere Reserve within the Man and Biosphere Program.

    TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

    We, your Memorialists, the House of Representatives and the Senate of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

    WHEREAS, The United Nations has promoted a Biosphere Program throughout the world; and

    WHEREAS, The United Nations Cultural, Educational, and Scientific Organization, UNESCO, has created a worldwide system of three hundred twenty-eight Biosphere Reserves in eighty-two nations; and

    WHEREAS, Forty-seven United Nations-designated Biosphere Reserves are within the sovereign borders of the United States, and one United Nations-designated Biosphere Reserve is within the State of Washington; and

    WHEREAS, Neither the Washington State Legislature nor the Congress of the United States has considered, debated, or approved such designations; and

    WHEREAS, The Olympic National Park has already been designated as a Biosphere Reserve; and

    WHEREAS, None of the current area included within the Biosphere Program in the State of Washington has been included at the request of or with the consent of the Washington State Legislature; and

    WHEREAS, The Washington State Legislature does not believe that a request from the National Park Service should be adequate to nominate land in the State of Washington as a Biosphere Reserve;

    NOW, THEREFORE, The Washington State Legislature is unalterably opposed to the inclusion of any land within the borders of the state within the purview of the Biodiversity Treaty or any biodiversity program without the express consent of the Washington State Legislature, as provided by the United States Constitution and the Washington State Constitution.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That the Washington State Legislature urge the members of the Congress of the United States, and especially the Washington delegation to the Congress of the United States, to oppose inclusion of any land within the State of Washington in any Biosphere Program of the United Nations without the express consent of the Washington State Legislature in the form of enacted legislation; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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