CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— Extensions Of

July 9, 1996 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð Extensions of Remarks E1223 go to Mr. and Mrs. Leland Haun of Clovis, CA, counts, demonstrate to those who know the to ride with him in the cockpit from Califor- in my district who lost their dear son, Capt. subject how stark is the distance between nia to New York where she intended to nurse Timothy Haun, at the young age of 33. May mere accuracy and truth. Mollie, as she was it back to health. The bird sat on the com- known to one and all, was many things, but pass of the DC±7 all the way across the coun- God bless Captain Haun, his family and his never a creature of Washington, never a com- try. The pilot then drove the bird to his memory. posite of accomplishments and, most cer- home in Putnam County but when he showed It perhaps goes without saying, that the tainly, not a public being. it to his wife, the bird keeled over dead. Four brave passing of Captain Haun and his Air True, she had allowed herself to be thrust decades later, Mollis was still in mouring. Force comrades has not been in vain, and into the center of an intensely public debate, Her mother worried how Mollie would fare that those who viscously perpetrated this out- selected to hold aloft the tattered banner of in Washington, a place where capitulation rage epitomize cowardice. Mr. Speaker, the conservation and the Endangered Species often passes for compromise. Her fears were Act, which she viewed less as an act of civil guilty here are hardly deserving of the gift of unfounded. Mollie could be tough. Just ask legislation than divine ordination. But Mol- Ralph Wright, former Vermont speaker of life they have now so recklessly taken from lie's brief and quiet sojourn in WashingtonÐ the house. ``Mollie just didn't take any crap others so worthy of it. While these terrorists less than three yearsÐleft a lasting mark on from me,'' Wright once told me. ``She stood still slither through the cracks and shadows of both the physical landscape of the nation up to me when I tried to push her around. an unstable region, our quest to uncover them and the political terrain of conservation eth- She gave it right back. I didn't mess with must be relentless because their actions have ics. Mollie anymore.'' Mollie took a certain pride been a direct affront to the United States, its I first met Mollie shortly after she arrived in standing her ground. She bristled when people, and its overall objective of creating a in Washington. She had consented to a series Wright once suggested she was a daughter of of personal interviews for a profile I was more secure and lasting peace. They should privilege. `Ì'm as shanty Irish as he isÐon writing. I remember her pageboy haircut, her both sides!'' she boasted. know that the United States is not intimidated, radiant face, utterly devoid of makeup, and Still, she was conciliatory by nature, un- to the contrary, when brave servicemen die, her smart blue suit with brass buttonsÐa comfortable with confrontation, not out of we are even more resilient. visible concession from someone who other- weakness but out of belief that even the While our search for justice should be vigi- wise lived in jeans. Later I would speak with human habitatÐperhaps especiallyÐwas big lant and our foreign policy unwavering, we her about topics as diverse as tropical for- enough to accommodate all species and man- should not lose sight of those who have just ests, endangered species and the National Bi- ner of ideas. She had a supremely quiet con- paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country's ological Survey. fidence. `Ì've always worked hard never to No sooner had she arrived than she put the allow my lifestyle to rise to the level of my ideals. These men have passed in serving a agency on notice that change was in the off- income or my expectations of my career to vision tracing back to our Nation's first found- ing. In the long hallway leading to the direc- be one of an endlessly accending trajectory,'' ing sacrifices at Boston, Concord, and Lexing- tor's office, there is a portrait gallery of she told me shortly after assuming office. ton. They, like their founders before them, former directorsÐthen black-and-white `Ì've worked very hard on those two things have died for the principled tradition of free- photos of middle-aged white men in stiff so I'm always free to go, because I know dom and liberty. They will not be forgotten. white shirts, dark jackets and Windsor where my lines are. If you have to put it on knots. Mollie chose a color photo of herself f the line, you have to put it on the line. in hip waders, holding a pair of field glasses There's a place past which it isn't worth it.'' REMEMBERING MOLLIE BEATTIE and standing at the edge of the water. Just Heading the agency was not an easy job for behind her, on the opposite shore, can be Mollie. She told her sister shortly after ar- seen a Kodiak bear. It was a statement that riving that it was a great jobÐfor 10 people. HON. GEORGE MILLER needed no elaboration. She maintained a dizzying schedule. Once, OF CALIFORNIA Conservationists immediately embraced flying over Iowa, she could not remember if IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES her appointment as the ultimate victory. she was flying to the East or West Coast. She was one of their own. But Mollie A few months after her arrival here I asked Tuesday, July 9, 1996 shunned the notion of being an eco-evan- her what was the hardest thing about Wash- Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I am gelist, combining hard science (a degree in ington, expecting her to cite the withering saddened to note today the passing of Mollie forestry from the University of Vermont), a assault on conservation issues or the late- H. Beattie, the recently resigned Director of master's in public administration from Har- night hours in the office. Not Mollie. ``My vard, and a child's sense of awe. It would hardest adjustment?'' She repeated. ``The the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. prove to be an irresistible combination for lack of darkness at night, living in a place Ms. Beattie was a dedicated, intelligent, and political friend and foe alike. that's never quiet. The confinement of it. determined administrator of the Service. Dur- She came by her love of nature honestly. I'm used to absolutely unadulterated pri- ing her 3-year tenure, she insisted upon bas- Her grandmother Harriet Hanna was a self- vacy. That's hard. It's a real loss that I can't ing her agency's actions on two very sound educated botanist and landscape artist who just wander off into the woods.'' criteria: scientific knowledge and the law. knew every tree by its Latin name and, like Mollie was neither ideologue nor politi- For that, she was criticized, second all the girls in the family, was richly eccen- cian. She held to the same positions in her guessed, and vilified by some, but treasured tric. ``Her wackiness intrigued me as a kid,'' personal life as her public life. Her mother Mollie told me. ``She seemed a little freer recalls that Mollie shamed her into avoiding and respected by far more. She had one of than everybody else.'' Mollie recalled that the purchase of any colored tissues, warning the toughest, but most important, jobs in her grandmother would be seen outside in that the colors were slower to break down in Washington, and we will miss her thoughtful her nightgown at 5 a.m., toting her 4±10 shot- the soil. leadership. gun in search of opossums disturbing her Fifteen years ago she let her guard down I would like to share with my colleagues a garden. Her home was part animal shelter, and admitted she'd gone to forestry school moving tribute to Director Beattie written by part clinicÐhome to lame deer, birds with ``damn well determined to subvert the sys- Ted Gup for the Washington Post. I know that broken legs and raccoons that had become tem.'' And she did just that. She helped to elevate the level of national debate while all of my colleagues join with me in expressing dependent on her largess. `Ì got her ethic that if it moves, feed it,'' and Mollie. lowering levels of distrust and enmity that our deep condolences to her husband, Rick Mollie's mother, Pat also has a fiercely characterized much of the conservation is- Schwolsky, and the rest of her family and her independent streak and devotion to nature. sues in the '90s. During her brief watch at friends in Vermont, in Washington, and Pat Beattie never told me how old she was, the Fish and Wildlife Service, another 15 through the country. only that she was ``well over 65.'' She lives in wildlife refuges were added, more than 100 [From the Washington Post, July 1, 1996] a log cabin among eight acres of sagebrush conservation habitat plans were agreed on south of Ketchum, Idaho. She rides horses between landowners and the government, WOMAN OF THE WOODSÐMOLLIE BEATTIE, A climbs rocks and drives a Ford pickup. `Às I and the gray wolf was reintroduced into the NATURAL AS FISH & WILDLIFE CHIEF get older, I like the wilds better,'' she told Northern Rockies.

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