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<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Gale
Norton Resigns<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:2.25pt;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:2.25pt;margin-left:0in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.com/op_ed&pos=Frame4A&camp=foxsearch2006-emailtools05-nyt5&ad=smoking-articletool-88x31&goto=http://clk.atdmt.com/ORG/go/nwyrkfxs0040000007org/direct/01/"
target="_blank"><font color=black><span style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:
none'>Editorial</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Published: March 12, 2006<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Like her mentor, James Watt, the maniacally anti-environmental
interior secretary under Ronald Reagan, Gale Norton came to Washington
convinced that the pendulum of public policy had swung too far in favor of the
protection of America's natural resources at the expense of their commercial
exploitation — especially by the oil, natural gas and mining industries.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>In this she was little different from the other ideologues
whom President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney picked to fill most of the
administration's important environmental posts. But as the cheerful, upbeat
face of a retrograde public policy, she may have been the most successful of
them all. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>In public Ms. Norton spoke winningly of what she called her
four C's: "cooperation, communication and consultation, all in the service
of conservation." But this was little more than comfy language diverting
attention from her main agenda, which was to open up Western lands, some of
them fragile, to the extractive industries. Perhaps her signature moment was a
secret deal in 2003 with Mike Leavitt, then governor of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Utah</st1:place></st1:State>, in which she not only exposed 2.6
million acres of previously protected lands to commercial development but also
renounced her statutory authority to recommend additional lands for wilderness
protection. There will be no new wilderness under my watch, she seemed to say,
but there will be oil and gas. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>The agency she leaves behind is not a particularly happy one.
Many National Park Service employees oppose her rewrite of the service's
management philosophy, a rewrite favoring recreational use over conservation.
Biologists at the Fish and Wildlife Service have complained of political
interference. Her emasculation of the mining laws pleased few outside the
industry. The White House has hacked unmercifully at key departmental programs —
including the vital Land and Water Conservation Fund, which Mr. Bush vowed to
protect — without audible complaint from the secretary. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Ms. Norton has been an extraordinarily faithful steward of
the Bush agenda — but not, we are sad to say, of the lands she was
obliged to protect.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><i><font size=3 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker</span></font></i></em></st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Advisor, California Trout, Inc</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
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size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>PO Box</span></font></i></em></st1:Street><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'> 2327</span></font></i></em></st1:address><o:p></o:p></p>
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color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></em></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810 ph</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 9562 fx</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="http://www.fotr.org">http://www.fotr.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><u><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'>http:www.caltrout.org</span></font></u><font
color=lime><span style='color:lime'> </span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span><o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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