WHEREAS, the health of the environment must be regarded as seriously as human health; and
WHEREAS, a solid scientific basis is essential for effective programs to protect, manage, or restore a healthy environment; and
WHEREAS, the United States needs a coordinated national program to support fundamental and applied environmental research encompassing a wide variety of disciplines aimed at understanding, preventing, and solving environmental problems; and
WHEREAS, such research is presently uncoordinated and largely underfunded; and
WHEREAS, a consensus is emerging in the scientific community that a government agency that supports mission-oriented competitively awarded research, in the same way that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) support biomedical research, may be the most appropriate vehicle to encourage, promote and support environmental research;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the American Society of Mammalogists meeting at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 15-19 June 1991, continue to support the concept of creating the National Institutes for the Environment and requests to participate in the planning and development of such an Institute.