BigHornRam
Well-known member
After Norton, let's break the cycle - Thursday, March 16, 2006
SUMMARY: Enough polarization! Hugely valuable public assets could use some quiet, considerate, consensus-minded stewardship.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton resigned last week, having accomplished what interior secretaries generally do - maintain the polarized debate over management of public lands and resources.
Norton made increased oil and gas production from federal lands her highest priority, but like several of her modern predecessors, she produced far more fuel for political fires than energy for the nation. She's made just enough progress to set the stage for a backlash, beginning with election of the next Democrat - just as she represented the Bush administration's predictable zig away from the Clinton administration's zag.
Back and forth it goes, Republican administrations calling for more drilling, mining and logging of public lands, Democratic administrations promising to drive all moneychangers from the public's temple. For every Cecil Andrus there is a James Watt, for every Bruce Babbitt there follows a Gale Norton. Whichever party's in power succeeds in rallying its faithful followers but succeeds even more in galvanizing the opposition. The result, in seesaw fashion, is all hue and cry - and enduring stalemate.
Drive into the Garnet Range east of Missoula, take a run up to Glacier National Park, or park your truck at the end of a long, dusty eastern Montana road and walk out onto the prairie: What you'll find is pretty much what you'd have found last year, last decade and for much of the last century. Perhaps what's most remarkable about the furious debates fostered by the Department of Interior is how little actual effect they have on the land itself.
There's some unwritten rule that compels presidents to appoint westerners interior secretary, the reasoning being that there's so much public land in the West. But why must they be all-throttle or all-brake? Most of us who live out West see vast areas of common ground in the public domain. Most of us value the public lands for a variety of reasons. We don't want them ruined or handed off to somebody's crony, but we also don't mind putting them to prudent use.
The lands, resources and facilities managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service comprise an American birthright of inestimable value. These are national assets that deserve to be managed as such - conservatively, prudently, predictably, not radically.
With Norton's imminent departure, President Bush is now shopping for a new secretary of Interior. He won't surprise anyone if he picks someone straight out of central casting - an energetic western polarizer. Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and former Utah Congressman Jim Hansen quickly made it to the short list of rumored possibilities.
But wouldn't it be nice if, for a change, the president put the Department of Interior into the hands of someone more adept at creating consensus than controversy? Surely there are enough other sectors of government suitable for partisan extremism. Give us a steward of these public assets who'll share our respect for the West's common ground, not one who'll maintain the public land legacy as a battleground.
SUMMARY: Enough polarization! Hugely valuable public assets could use some quiet, considerate, consensus-minded stewardship.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton resigned last week, having accomplished what interior secretaries generally do - maintain the polarized debate over management of public lands and resources.
Norton made increased oil and gas production from federal lands her highest priority, but like several of her modern predecessors, she produced far more fuel for political fires than energy for the nation. She's made just enough progress to set the stage for a backlash, beginning with election of the next Democrat - just as she represented the Bush administration's predictable zig away from the Clinton administration's zag.
Back and forth it goes, Republican administrations calling for more drilling, mining and logging of public lands, Democratic administrations promising to drive all moneychangers from the public's temple. For every Cecil Andrus there is a James Watt, for every Bruce Babbitt there follows a Gale Norton. Whichever party's in power succeeds in rallying its faithful followers but succeeds even more in galvanizing the opposition. The result, in seesaw fashion, is all hue and cry - and enduring stalemate.
Drive into the Garnet Range east of Missoula, take a run up to Glacier National Park, or park your truck at the end of a long, dusty eastern Montana road and walk out onto the prairie: What you'll find is pretty much what you'd have found last year, last decade and for much of the last century. Perhaps what's most remarkable about the furious debates fostered by the Department of Interior is how little actual effect they have on the land itself.
There's some unwritten rule that compels presidents to appoint westerners interior secretary, the reasoning being that there's so much public land in the West. But why must they be all-throttle or all-brake? Most of us who live out West see vast areas of common ground in the public domain. Most of us value the public lands for a variety of reasons. We don't want them ruined or handed off to somebody's crony, but we also don't mind putting them to prudent use.
The lands, resources and facilities managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service comprise an American birthright of inestimable value. These are national assets that deserve to be managed as such - conservatively, prudently, predictably, not radically.
With Norton's imminent departure, President Bush is now shopping for a new secretary of Interior. He won't surprise anyone if he picks someone straight out of central casting - an energetic western polarizer. Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and former Utah Congressman Jim Hansen quickly made it to the short list of rumored possibilities.
But wouldn't it be nice if, for a change, the president put the Department of Interior into the hands of someone more adept at creating consensus than controversy? Surely there are enough other sectors of government suitable for partisan extremism. Give us a steward of these public assets who'll share our respect for the West's common ground, not one who'll maintain the public land legacy as a battleground.
