Secretary Norton, Interior Officials Will Call for 'New
Environmentalism' at Earth Day 2002 Events
Press release from U.S. Department of the Interior,
202-208-6416
WASHINGTON, April 19, 2002 /U.S.
Newswire -- Secretary of the
Interior Gale Norton and other top officials will fan out over
the USA on Earth Day, Monday, April 22, to celebrate the land
and wildlife administrated by the Interior Department and
call for a "environmentalism" in which private citizens
work in partnership with government as stewards of the land.
"This Earth Day, more than ever, Americans are ready to take
action as self-motivated stewards of the environment we
hand down to future generations," Norton said. "To accomplish
this, we need a new
environmentalism, based on the Four Cs --
communication, consultation, cooperation, all in the service
of conservation. At the heart of the Four Cs is the fact
that successful conservation calls for involving the people
who live on, work on, and love the land."
Secretary Norton will speak at a Monday ceremony that will
mark the construction of a new invasive plant control facility
at the University of Florida in Davie. On Tuesday, the
Secretary will address the Palm Beach Forum Club regarding
environmental issues, including restoration of the Everglades,
and will tour the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in
Sanibel, Fla. She says, "Everglades restoration exemplifies
the principles that originally inspired Earth Day and the
volunteerism at Ding Darling exemplifies citizen
stewardship."
Lynn Scarlett, assistant secretary for policy, management
and budget, will visit the Northern Chesapeake Bay in Maryland
to showcase the DOI Coastal Program and Partners for Fish and
Wildlife projects and the possibilities for applying President
Bush's Cooperative Conservation Initiative in the region.
At Holly Beach Farm, she will examine a multi-partnered
conservation and restoration effort, including private land-
owners, The Conservation Fund, Chesapeake Bay Foundation,
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and National Park Service.
"These Maryland partnership projects set an example for
the rest of the nation on Earth Day," Scarlett said. "Projects
such as these point the way to
the new environmentalism,
a path away from conflict and toward consensus. This is
the path this administration will take." Scarlett said
President Bush's proposed Cooperative Conservation Initiative
will remove barriers to such citizen participation elsewhere.
To fund this initiative, the president is proposing $100
million in challenge grants to landowners, land-user
groups, conservation groups, and local and state governments
for conservation projects.
Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Bennett Raley
will be in Sacramento, Calif., on April 22, emphasizing the
Secretary's Four Cs at science symposium panel discussion
on restoration efforts under the CALFED project, a huge
public-private partnership critical to supplying the water
that is the lifeblood of the West.
Assistant Secretary for Land & Minerals Management
Rebecca Watson will tour two Virginia sites with ties to
the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service and
Bureau of Land Management. She will be joined at Runnymeade
Park in Herndon, Va., by Mayor Carol Bruce and other
officials. Park officials recently submitted an application
to receive funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund,
which comes from offshore royalties collected by MMS.
The LWCF funds federal, state and local park and open space
projects. The Bush administration has proposed historic
amounts of funding for the LWCF, in Lorton, Va. Watson
will help some school children plant trees at Meadowwood
Farm, recently acquired by the BLM.
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will
join American Indian students at Sequoyah High School in
Tahlequah, Okla., to participate in Earth Day activities
on Monday. Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee
Nation, and McCaleb will present awards to students who
participated in a large Earth Day project. The high
school is a grant school operated by the Cherokee Nation
with funding from the Interior Department's Bureau of
Indian Affairs. McCaleb will also tour environmental
science facilities and plant a tree on campus.
Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife
and Parks Craig Manson will return to this childhood home
in New Mexico to celebrate Earth Day at Bosque del Apache
National Wildlife Refuge. He will be joined by children
from Albuquerque's Zimmerly Elementary School. "I can't
think of a more appropriate way to spend Earth Day than
with New Mexico's future conservationists," Judge Manson
said. He will also be the keynote speaker Monday
evening at the National Hispanic Sustainable Energy
Conference's Gala Banquet in Tucson, Ariz. "A vital
part of our mission at the Department of the Interior
is to make sure that local voices are heard in Washington,"
Manson noted. "We have set out to foster a 'New
Environmentalism' that seeks to succeed through partnership
and dialogue, and certainly we are working to include all
communities in our efforts."
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys is another
top Interior official focusing on conservationists of the
future for Earth Day 2002. At Cowell Elementary School in
Denver, Colo., 200 fourth and fifth graders will participate
in an Earth Day activity in which they will learn about
water conservation, water use and the transportation and
storage system for water in the West. Commissioner Keys
will lead a discussion on how the students can help
their public lands through volunteering.
Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke
also will join young people, participating in a field
project with Boy Scouts at the Las Cienegas National
Conservation Area, which is managed by the BLM
Tucson, Ariz., field office. Her visit will emphasize
the examples of citizen-based decision making and the
Four Cs exemplified by the development of the Las Cienegas
NCA Resource Management Plan. The plan is the result
of cooperation and collaboration among more than 300
citizens. Interest groups and state and federal agencies.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Steve Williams will
tour about 300 acres of restored wetlands and five streams
at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, presenting
awards to partners who made the restoration possible.
Providing an outstanding example of the Four Cs are many
partners. Those to be recognized include Friends of
Willapa NWR, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife,
The Nature Conservancy, Willapa Bay Regional Fisheries
Enhancement Group, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Natural Resource Conservation Service, and Ducks
Unlimited. The restored streams and wetlands contain
endangered coho, chinook and chum salmon, as well as
steelhead and cutthroat trout.
National Park Service Director Fram Mainella will
spend Earth Day at Fort Smith National Historic Site
in Arkansas, a unit of the National Park System. She will
also be doing a live television interview with CBS Channel
5 to answer questions from the public about Earth Day
and administration conservation policies. The National
Park Service is celebrating Earth Day with events
nationwide, many of which involve students. At Kenai
Fjords National Park in Alaska, for example, there will
be a student art contest, and at Boston Harbor Island in
Massachusetts, there will be a boat trip and nature walk
for students.
Minerals Management Service Director R.M. "Johnnie"
Burton will visit Assateague Island National Seashore in
Maryland on Earth Day, April 22, to personally view the
erosion severely impacting the barrier island's beaches.
MMS recently signed an agreement with the National Park
Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use 2
million cubic yards of sand from the U.S. Outer
Continental Shelf to restore the island.
U.S. Geological Survey Director Chip Groat will
preview USGS work being conducted on a wide range
of ecological issues at an April 23 Science Writers'
open house in Gainesville, Fla. These issues
include manatee population ecology, the impact of
hurricanes on coastal systems, Everglades ecosystem
restoration, the impact of invasive species and
contaminants and sinkholes.
Office of Surface Mining Assistant Director
Josie Blanchard, representing Director Jeff Jarrett,
will honor science students in Lexington, Ky., by
planting trees at Squires Elementary School and
introducing them to the OSM's interactive web site
for education. By partnering with environmentally
active youth, OSM looks forward to promoting the
benefits of reclamation methods such as planting
of trees on active and abandoned strip mines.
In addition to these activities around the nation,
back at Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C.,
Deputy Assistant Secretary Chris Kearney will address
an Earth Day celebration at Rawlins Park.
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