The Campaign for America's Wilderness applauds the nomination of Sen. Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior by President-elect Obama. As a senator from Colorado and a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Salazar has been a strong proponent of protecting federal public lands as wilderness, starting with Rocky Mountain National Park, Dominguez Canyons, and Browns Canyon, and including many others that will forever preserve some of America's best wild lands.
The Campaign for America's Wilderness has worked closely with Sen. Salazar and with Colorado conservationists, and has witnessed firsthand his leadership, skill and commitment to public lands issues. His tireless advocacy on behalf of wilderness will be missed in the Senate, but Sen. Salazar's on-the-ground understanding of the value of protected public land to future generations will be a valuable addition to the Obama cabinet.
As a farmer, a rancher, and a conservationist, Sen. Salazar understands the importance of balancing traditional uses of our public lands with the need to protect them. His knowledge of land management issues in the West, coupled with his ability to work with diverse groups and coalitions to find common ground, will serve him well at the Department of the Interior.
As a Member of Congress, Salazar has sponsored a number of bills to protect public lands as wilderness in Colorado: the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness and Indian Peaks Wilderness Expansion Act to designate as wilderness nearly 250,000 acres, the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area and Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Area Act, which includes 66,000 acres of wilderness, and the Browns Canyon Wilderness Act, which will protect nearly 20,000 acres of wilderness.
We look forward to seeing Interior Secretary Salazar move the equation of balance between development and lands protection in a new direction that will help leave this country a better place for our children and grandchildren.
