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Confluence: May 2003, Vol. 5, No. 3
Interesting Individuals

This month's issue of Confluence interviews Bruce Babbitt, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1993-2000 under President Bill Clinton. Before his appointment as Secretary of the Interior, Babbitt served as governor of Arizona from 1978-1987, in addition to other positions in the private and public sectors. Currently affiliated with Keppler Associates, Inc., as a public speaker, Babbitt spoke at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, in April to discuss environmental issues. Confluence had the opportunity to discuss watershed issues with Babbitt during his stay.

CONFLUENCE: What advice do you have for students who are interested in pursuing environmental and natural resources management degrees, and as they pursue not only academic but professional pursuits?

BABBITT: I have three pieces of advice: One, vote. Number two, make sure to include enough science in your course selection. There is a tendency to emphasize policy because it's more fun. The future of environmental management is going to be determined by people who have a good grip on quantitative tools, hydrology, all of the underlying science. So if you're really interested in this field, think about science as a necessary part of learning. My third piece of advice is to point out that environmental action starts at home. Environmental restoration is a very important environmental objective that's relevant to everybody. Everybody lives in a watershed, and everyone lives near a watershed that's badly abused where there is some group beginning to take specific steps that you can participate in. It's a wonderful, hands-on introduction to the environment. The best way to understand environmental management is to spend a weekend cleaning up a watershed, planting trees, or working on any one of a hundred restoration projects. Environmental careers and interests in environmental science and policy really need to have their roots in hands-on appreciation, which you can get in many ways, but it's really important to maintain your contact with the subject matter you're trying to take care of.

CONFLUENCE: As a former government official, can you elaborate on some of the more effective practices that you've seen local communities take to enact local legislation policy issues? Beyond litigation and letter-writing campaigns, what can local watershed groups do to make a serious change?

BABBITT: There are a lot of important things that have to originate in local communities. Recycling is one; land use is another. I think land use is a great bridge between environmental science and public policy. And in local communities, land use decisions being made in the form of zoning and land use planning are very important things to get involved in. Restoration is really the next big sort of chapter in the environmental movement. For the last hundred years, we've been talking about preservation of spaces "way out there." But now we're recognizing that we have to deal with the environment right around us. And restoration speaks to that need. Working with watershed groups is really a wonderful way into this.

CONFLUENCE: What is your position on the proposed Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative, which would exempt the military from some environmental regulations? (For more information on the Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative, see the Legislation & Policy Section below)

BABBITT: It's not a good idea. What it represents is a failure of leadership in this administration. There are conflicts, but they can be worked out under existing law. I'm afraid that the people who make these proposals really want to simply take a whack at the environmental laws rather than solve the problems. There is enough flexibility under current environmental laws to deal with these problems, if they would just get to the ground and work at it, which they don't do.

CONFLUENCE: Do you believe that programs such as the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Fund and state coal severance taxes are an effective method of balancing the environmental costs of coal mining against the economic importance of coal energy production, especially in a region such as Appalachia?

BABBITT: You can go on the land in the Appalachians, and see the improvements that have been made both in land restoration and in stream restoration. There are really some wonderful things happening with stream restoration and the creation of enhanced wetlands as a way of enhancing water quality. I've seen some really interesting examples in West Virginia where fisheries have been restored by the addition of limestone to rebalance the Ph of the water. It's an artificial kind of thing, but if you've got a ruined stream with no fisheries, it's kind of a neat way to go about AMD remediation. There are a lot of these kinds of issues that can be worked on. A lot of things like plugging up and stabilizing abandoned mine shafts are still needed in places like West Virginia, where floods break through mine encampments that have been abandoned and left to deteriorate. Those things can all be addressed through AML and through restoration funds.

CONFLUENCE: The AML fund is set to expire next year. Do you support its renewal?

BABBITT: Absolutely.

CONFLUENCE: Should any changes be made in its structure?

BABBITT: I don't know. I'm not clear how all of the states are using their AML funds, there may need to be a sharpening of the definition of the priorities - I sense some of the AML funds moving off target.

CONFLUENCE: Do you think the AML funds should be disbursed more quickly?

BABBITT: Yeah. How's that for a change. Actually, right now it's actually kind of a fraud, because the AML taxes are collected but not disbursed. What they should do by way of amending the law is to have an automatic float rather than impounding the funds and using them for the military budget or Medicare or whatever.

CONFLUENCE: Do you believe that nonrenewable energy production should be taxed as a general policy to support conservation and renewable energy initiatives?

BABBITT: There is a lot of interesting history about that. The original idea behind the Land and Water Conservation Fund was that a billion dollars a year would automatically be earmarked from offshore oil royalties to finance conservation, to offset oil extraction. That's never been done. That would be a good start; to set up a land and water trust fund to finance environmental protection. There are a lot of ideas like that and the answer is yes, we should consider it.

CONFLUENCE: Looking back on your tenure as Secretary of the Interior, what do you see as the lasting legacy of the policies that you and the Clinton administration enacted?

BABBITT: I would say that probably in the sweep of history, it will be the public lands and marine reserve issues. The enactment of a roadless policy in National Forests, the creation of National Monuments, and the establishing of huge marine reserves in the Pacific and the Atlantic would be up near the top. I also think that putting content into the Endangered Species Act as a land-use planning tool is a not well known but very, very important advance all over the country. It's protecting salmon, wolves in Yellowstone, and allowed for the setting aside of reserves in southern California. One famous example is the endangered copper-belly water snake in Ohio and West Virginia, which was a tool for protecting wetlands in coal mining areas.

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