Tuesday August 28, 2001 |

WASHINGTON - Utah natural resources manager Kathleen Burton Clarke is President Bush's choice to head the Bureau of Land Management, overseeing 264 million acres of public land, mostly in 12 Western states.

The White House announced Bush's intention yesterday to nominate Clarke, who if confirmed by the Senate would become the first woman in the Interior Department job.

Clarke said she was honored to be chosen and can offer the job management and organizational skills and a proven ability to bring disparate groups together.

"The challenges are finding a balance. We have to always find balance between using the public lands and conserving the public lands. The conflicts are inherent," Clarke said in an interview.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, likewise a Westerner, from Colorado, said Clarke has broad experience to help her fulfill BLM's mission to protect public lands.

"Kathleen's background and experience demonstrate a holistic, integrated approach to natural resource conservation," Norton said.

The 51-year-old director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources is a lawyer who began her government career as a receptionist for the late Republican Sen. Wallace Bennett, who represented Utah from 1951 through 1974.

From 1987 to 1993 she directed constituent services for Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, now chairman of the House Resources Committee, and ran his office in Ogden, Utah. Clarke joined Utah GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt's administration in 1993, working with then state Natural Resources Department director Ted Stewart, now a federal district judge in Utah.

Norton said Clarke was instrumental in securing $3 million per year from the Utah legislature to protect and recover endangered species. Clarke also helped develop a management plan to conserve Great Salt Lake.

Utah environmentalists expressed skepticism about Clarke in the Bureau of Land Management, citing her ties to Utah Republicans who opposed former President Clinton's environmental initiatives.

"They have just time and time again been very hostile to the environment and have proposed energy and other projects like freeways in some of America's most pristine areas," said Marc Heileson, Salt Lake City-based regional representative of the Sierra Club.

"She is sensitive to industry concerns. We've seen her be less sensitive to preservation and sensitive resource management," said Steve Bloch, a staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Clarke dismissed the criticism. "I have taken a balanced approach between conservation and protection of resource values and my consideration of industry and developers," she said.