FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oregon Wild Joins Chorus of Green Groups Backing Grijalva For Interior Secretary

117 Groups Say AZ Congressman Is Right Person to Reform Troubled Agency

Conservation groups line up to support new direction for Interior Department.

Leading Oregon conservation group Oregon Wild today joined a large, influential, and growing coalition of environmental organizations building momentum behind naming Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) as the next Secretary of the Interior. Over 100 groups, led by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), sent a support letter to President-elect Obama urging him to name Rep. Grijalva—who currently chairs the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands—as the next head of the Interior Department.

“Oregon and the rest of the West need an Interior Secretary who understands the damage done over the last eight years and is willing and ready to step in and begin charting a new course for the department,” said Steve Pedery, Conservation Director with Oregon Wild. “Representative Grijalva has demonstrated that he is ready to restore integrity at Interior.”

The 117 groups, based in states ranging from New York and Virginia to Colorado and California, who signed this latest letter represent some of the fast-developing support for Grijalva spanning wildlife, land protection and good government groups, as well as among congressional colleagues, notably Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) who chairs the Natural Resources Committee. Scientists. Tribes and Latino organizations are also backing Grijalva.

Among the pluses highlighted in the new conservation support letter is that Rep. Grijalva has a depth and breadth of experience in complex natural resource issues at federal, state, tribal and county levels. In particular, the letter cites his:

• Assembling what is regarded as one of the most “far sighted endangered species protection plans in the nation” that minimized the need for litigation that has plagued Interior;
• Expertise in drought management, a growing condition in the parched West; and
• Leadership in “pressing Interior and other federal agencies to integrate global warming issues into their planning and permitting.”

“Representative Grijalva is widely respected, with excellent state and local relations, and a proven record of fairness, ethics and conservation,” stated Southwest PEER Director Daniel Patterson, who is a newly elected Arizona State Representative who formerly worked with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which controls the most acreage of any Interior agency. “Congressman Grijalva understands wildlife and outdoors issues, as well as energy, water, tribes and natural resources management.”

“President-elect Obama has talked about change, and in Oregon we need a change of direction for management of our public lands,” added Pedery. “As a sponsor of important forest restoration legislation, Representative Grijalva has shown that he understands the need to protect old-growth forests and move ahead with conservation-based thinning.”

The next Interior Secretary will take over an agency badly shaken by ethics scandals which saw, among other things, the imprisonment of its top deputy, losses of tens of billions of dollars from under-collection of oil royalties and, most recently, revelation of sex and drug parties involving key Interior employees and oil company executives.

“Interior desperately needs new leadership to restore ethics, science and responsibility, and Rep. Grijalva has shown that he knows what needs to be done,” Patterson added, pointing to a recent report compiled by Rep. Grijalva outlining problems plaguing Interior operations. “Throughout his career, Raúl Grijalva has demonstrated that he is a deft problem solver.”

Among the signatories joining Oregon Wild and PEER on the letter are Grand Canyon Trust, Californians for Western Wilderness, The Fund for Horses, Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation, Maricopa Audubon Society, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, and Conservation Voters of New Mexico.

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Read the green group support letter for Rep. Grijalva

See the report by Rep. Grijalva on challenges facing national parks, forests and rangelands

Look at Interior ethics scandals during the Bush administration

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