American Heritage Rivers Initiative Advisory Committee

Executive Order 13080 of April 7, 1998

American Heritage Rivers Initiative Advisory
Committee

By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States,
including the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C.
App., as amended, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Establishment. There is hereby established
the American Heritage Rivers Initiative Advisory
Committee (“Committee”). The Committee shall consist
of up to 20 members appointed by the President from the
public and private sectors. Each member of the
Committee shall be a person who, as a result of his or
her training, experience, and attainments, is well
qualified to appraise the quality of nominations for
selection of rivers as American Heritage Rivers
submitted by communities across the country. The
expertise of members of the Committee shall be in areas
such as natural, cultural, and historic resources;
water quality; public health; scenic and recreation
interests; tourism and economic development interests;
industry; and agriculture. The President shall
designate a Chair from among the members of the
Committee.

Sec. 2. (a) The Committee shall review nominations from
communities and recommend to the President up to 20
rivers for consideration for designation as American
Heritage Rivers. From the rivers recommended for
consideration, the President shall designate ten as
American Heritage Rivers.

    (b) In its review of nominations submitted by
communities, the Committee shall provide its assessment
of:
(1) The scope of each nomination's application and the
  adequacy of its design to achieve the community's
  goals;
(2) Whether the natural, economic (including
  agricultural), scenic, historic, cultural, and/or
  recreational resources featured in the application
  are distinctive or unique;
(3) The extent to which the community's plan of action
  is clearly defined and the extent to which the plan
  addresses all three American Heritage Rivers
  objectives--natural resource and environmental
  protection, economic revitalization, and historic and
  cultural preservation--either through planned actions
  or past accomplishments, as well as any other
  characteristics of the proposals that distinguish a
  nomination, such as:
    (A) Community vision and partnership;
    (B) Sustainability of products and projects,
      including project maintenance;
    (C) Resources, both committed and anticipated,
      including means of generating additional support
      from both private and public sources;
    (D) Anticipated Federal role as defined by the
      applicants;
    (E) Schedule or timeline;
    (F) Citizen involvement;
    (G) Public education relating to the designation of
      the river;
    (H) Logistical support, operating procedures, and
      policies;
    (I) Prior accomplishments, if relevant, and
      relationship to existing plans and projects in
      the area; and
    (J) Measures of performance.
(4) The strength and diversity of support for the
  nomination and plan of action as evidenced by letters
  from local and State governments, Indian tribes,
  elected officials, any and all parties who
  participate in the life and health of the area to be
  nominated, or who have an interest in the economic
  life and cultural and environmental vigor of the
  involved community.

    (c) The Committee also should seek to recommend the
selection of rivers that as a group:
(1) Represent the natural, historic, cultural, social,
  economic, and agricultural

  diversity of American rivers;
(2) Showcase a variety of stream sizes and an
  assortment of urban, rural, and mixed settings from
  around the country, including both relatively
  pristine and degraded rivers;
(3) Highlight a variety of innovative programs in such
  areas as historic preservation, sustainable
  development through tourism, wildlife management,
  fisheries restoration, recreation, community
  revitalization, agricultural practices, and flood
  plain and watershed management;
(4) Include community efforts in early stages of
  development as well as those that are more well
  established; and
(5) Stand to benefit from targeted Federal assistance.

    (d) The Committee shall report its recommendations
for selection of rivers as American Heritage Rivers to
the President through the Chair of the Council on
Environmental Quality.

Sec. 3. Administration. (a) The heads of executive
departments and agencies shall provide the Committee,
to the extent practicable and permitted by law, such
information with respect to river revitalization as the
Committee requires to fulfill its functions.

    (b) The Committee shall be supported both
administratively and financially by the Secretary of
Defense, acting through the Assistant Secretary of the
Army for Civil Works.

Sec. 4. General. The Committee shall terminate no later
than 2 years from the date of this order. The Chair of
the Committee, with the approval of the designated
Federal officer, shall call meetings of the American
Heritage Rivers Initiative Advisory Committee.

    (Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    April 7, 1998.