Yale Bulletin and Calendar

December 6-13, 1999

Volume 28, Number 15

Bruce Babbitt

Interior Secretary to discuss
environmental ethics

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt will speak on "Ethics and Environmental Restoration" at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall St.

The talk is part of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies' seminar series on "Bioethics and Public Policy," and is cosponsored by the Slifka Center. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

President Clinton appointed Babbitt to head the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1993. As the United States' principal conservation agency, the department is responsible for determining the best use of the nation's land and water resources, protecting its fish and wildlife, and preserving the environmental and cultural values of its national parks and historic places.

As secretary of the interior, Babbitt oversees the management of over 440 million acres of federal lands, including some 360 national parks and about 500 wildlife refuges. He also oversees the department's agencies: the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Minerals Management Service, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Office of Insular Affairs.

During his tenure, Babbitt has helped lead the nation beyond simple preservation or environmental protection toward a more complex approach he calls "American Restoration."

He became the first secretary of the interior to restore the natural role of fire to the wild and to tear down dams in order to restore the natural flow of rivers and reestablish native fish habitats.

Babbitt has also worked to bring peace to California's water wars; shaped programs to preserve old-growth forests; drafted plans to restore the Florida Everglades; helped enact the California Desert Protection Act; forged new legislation for protection of the country's wildlife refuges; returned entrance fees and profits from concessions back to the parks that generated them; and negotiated the largest land swap in the history of the lower 48 states in order to protect the Grand Staircase monument and other parks in Utah.

He has also worked to boost the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act through innovative use of habitat conservation plans and recovery plans. As a result, the peregrine falcon, Aleutian Canada goose, bald eagle and gray wolf have been taken off the endangered species list. Babbitt personally brought the first wolf back to Yellowstone Park, where today more than 110 wolves can be seen and heard.

Before joining the Department of the Interior, Babbitt was a partner in the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, where his practice focused on natural resources, water law and environmental regulation. As governor of Arizona from 1977 to 1987, he dealt with the issue of water rights and worked to promote legislation protecting groundwater and water quality.

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