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Colorado: National Park Service

May 21, 2009 - 10:21 am
NEWS FEED: Denver Post

GOP senators lift hold on Salazar's top aide

By John Ingold

Two Republican U.S. senators agreed Wednesday to lift their procedural roadblocks and, hours later, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's right- hand man was confirmed by a unanimous Senate vote.

But the Republicans claimed victory, saying they had forced Salazar to reconsider his cancellation of oil and gas leases near national parks in Utah. The cancellation of the leases — issued during the last days of the Bush administration and which Salazar said were poorly considered — was the key motivation for Sens. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to place a hold on the confirmation of Interior veteran David Hayes as deputy secretary of the department.

Read More at Denver Post >
There have been 27 comments posted in response to this story.

March 10, 2009 - 02:35 pm
NEWS FEED: Colorado Independent

Salazar taps Shafroth for fish, wildlife and parks deputy post at Interior

By Ernest Luning

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday afternoon that fourth-generation Colorado resident Will Shafroth, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress last summer, will be the department’s deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. A few weeks ago Salazar nominated another Colorado politician as Shafroth’s boss, naming former Senate candidate and one-time U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland as his assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.

The announcement from Salazar’s office:

Salazar Names Land Conservation Leader Will Shafroth Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has named Will Shafroth, a land conservationist executive and founding director of the Colorado Conservation Trust and Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Read More at Colorado Independent >
There have been 26 comments posted in response to this story.

February 26, 2009 - 09:49 am
NEWS FEED: Colorado Independent

Park Service retirees: Repeal Bush era concealed weapons rule change

By Bill Wade, Coalition Of National Park Service Retirees

Late in 2008, the Bush Administration rushed through a regulatory change that would allow concealed-carry firearms to be possessed in national parks and national wildlife refuges in accordance with state permit requirements. The rule went into effect on Jan. 9.

The previous common-sense rule had been in effect for national parks since the early 1900s, in one form or another. The rule did not prohibit guns, but simply required them to be unloaded, cased and not immediately accessible.

Here is what was wrong with the Bush Administration rule-making process:

• The 2008 rulemaking, carried out by the Department of the Interior (DOI), was completed with no environmental impact analysis, and judged to be “categorically excluded” from the National Environmental Policy Act and other relevant considerations.

Read More at Colorado Independent >
There have been 7 comments posted in response to this story.

February 4, 2009 - 04:45 pm
NEWS FEED: Colorado Independent

Salazar rolls back 11th-hour Bush administration oil and gas lease sale in Utah

By David O. Williams

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Wednesday did a 180 on an 11th-hour Bush administration oil and gas lease sale of 77 parcels on U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in Utah near such sensitive areas as Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

Salazar said the BLM would withdraw leases sold in a controversial December auction in Salt Lake City that was marked by protests at BLM offices — including by luminaries such as Utah conservationist and actor Robert Redford — and infiltrated by an allegedly bogus bidder.

The leases led to infighting between the National Park Service and the BLM and drew protests from environmental groups fearful that drilling rigs would be visible from naturalist Edward Abbey’s old stomping grounds at Arches.

Read More at Colorado Independent >
There have been 25 comments posted in response to this story.

January 28, 2009 - 06:49 pm
NEWS FEED: Colorado Independent

Wildlife group: Cull elk at national park with wolves, not sharpshooters

By Ernest Luning

An environmental group called on the Department of the Interior to cease fire on a plan to use volunteer sharpshooters to reduce elk herds in Rocky Mountain National Park, instead urging officials to release wolves into the park “as part of the long-term solution to the elk over-browsing problem.”

The WildEarth Guardians “Carnivore Recovery Director” sent a letter Wednesday to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and other officials asking that they consider alternatives to shooting hundreds of “sedentary” elk each year. The sharpshooter plan is part of an effort to restore willow and aspen that have been grazed to extinction because of the lack of predators and consequent swelling of elk herds in the park.

Read More at Colorado Independent >
There have been 23 comments posted in response to this story.