I first met Sen. Ken Salazar shortly after he took office, in 2004 in his Denver office, to present him an award from the Alaska Coalition because, as a freshman senator, he cosponsored legislation to designate the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge as wilderness and thereby preclude oil development from occurring on that incomparable stretch of land, a bold early stand and a rare display of courage for someone so new to Congress.
We have subsequently seen Sen. Salazar champion legislation to designate wilderness within Rocky Mountain National Park. He has taken the lead on a bill to establish a National Conservation Area for Dominguez Canyon with wilderness inside. He also dropped a wilderness bill in the hopper for Colorado’s Browns Canyon.
This past September, Sen. Salazar came down off Capitol Hill to address a contingent of wilderness advocates from across the country visiting Washington to stump for their specific wilderness proposals. I’ve seen him in front of a roomful of local officials extol wilderness as neither a Democratic nor Republican issue, but wholly bipartisan in support.
Sen. Salazar knows the West, the people who live here, and the need to protect our natural heritage. He gets it. He’ll make a great Secretary of Interior.
