I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4876
To establish the Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 20, 2004
Mr. SIMMONS (for himself, Mr. ISRAEL, Mr. SHAYS, Mrs. JOHNSON of Con-
necticut, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. 
KING of New York, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Mr. 
BISHOP of New York, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. ENGEL, and Mr. CROWLEY) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Re-
sources, and in addition to the Committee on Transportation and Infra-
structure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish the Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Long Island Sound 
Stewardship Act of 2004’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—
(1) Long Island Sound is a national treasure of 
great cultural, environmental, and ecological impor-
tance; 
(2) 8,000,000 people live within the Long Is-
land Sound watershed and 28,000,000 people (ap-
proximately 10 percent of the population of the 
United States) live within 50 miles of Long Island 
Sound; 
(3) activities that depend on the environmental 
health of Long Island Sound contribute more than 
$5,000,000,000 each year to the regional economy; 
(4) the portion of the shoreline of Long Island 
Sound that is accessible to the general public (esti-
mated at less than 20 percent of the total shoreline) 
is not adequate to serve the needs of the people liv-
ing in the area; 
(5) existing shoreline facilities are in many 
cases overburdened and underfunded; 
(6) large parcels of open space already in public 
ownership are strained by the effort to balance the 
demand for recreation with the needs of sensitive 
natural resources; 
(7) approximately 1⁄3 of the tidal marshes of 
Long Island Sound have been filled, and much of 
the remaining marshes have been ditched, dyked, or
impounded, reducing the ecological value of the 
marshes; and 
(8) much of the remaining exemplary natural 
landscape is vulnerable to further development. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to estab-
lish the Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative to iden-
tify, protect, and enhance sites within the Long Island 
Sound ecosystem with significant ecological, educational, 
open space, public access, or recreational value through 
a bi-State network of sites best exemplifying these values. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act, the following definitions apply: 
(1) 
ADAPTIVE
MANAGEMENT.—The 
term 
‘‘adaptive management’’ means a scientific proc-
ess—
(A) for—
(i) developing predictive models; 
(ii) making management policy deci-
sions based upon the model outputs; 
(iii) revising the management policies 
as data become available with which to 
evaluate the policies; and 
(iv) acknowledging uncertainty, com-
plexity, and variance in the spatial and 
temporal aspects of natural systems; and
(B) that requires that management be 
viewed as experimental. 
(2) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency. 
(3) 
COMMITTEE.—The 
term 
‘‘Committee’’ 
means the Long Island Sound Stewardship Advisory 
Committee established by section 5(a). 
(4) REGION.—The term ‘‘Region’’ means the 
Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative Region es-
tablished by section 4(a). 
(5) STATES.—The term ‘‘States’’ means the 
States of Connecticut and New York. 
(6) STEWARDSHIP SITE.—The term ‘‘steward-
ship site’’ means a site that—
(A) qualifies for identification by the Com-
mittee under section 8; and 
(B) is an area of land or water or a com-
bination of land and water—
(i) that is in the Region; and 
(ii) that is—
(I) Federal, State, local, or tribal 
land or water; 
(II) land or water owned by a 
nonprofit organization; or
(III) privately owned land or 
water. 
(7) SYSTEMATIC SITE SELECTION.—The term 
‘‘systematic site selection’’ means a process of select-
ing stewardship sites that—
(A) has explicit goals, methods, and cri-
teria; 
(B) produces feasible, repeatable, and de-
fensible results; 
(C) provides for consideration of natural, 
physical, and biological patterns; 
(D) addresses reserve size, replication, 
connectivity, species viability, location, and pub-
lic recreation values; 
(E) uses geographic information systems 
technology and algorithms to integrate selection 
criteria; and 
(F) will result in achieving the goals of 
stewardship site selection at the lowest cost. 
(8) THREAT.—The term ‘‘threat’’ means a 
threat that is likely to destroy or seriously degrade 
a conservation target or a recreation area.