The last time Gale Norton visited Cortez, she waded into the politically charged issue of federal reserved water rights. If she visits again in the next four years, it will likely be in the capacity of U.S. Secretary of Interior.

Norton, a former Colorado Attorney General and associate solicitor of the Interior Department under President Reagan, has a résumé that includes working under the tutelage of former Interior Secretary James Watt when he headed the Mountain States Legal Foundation in Denver.

Watt later served under President Reagan as Interior secretary, and resigned in 1983 after describing members of a federal advisory panel as "a black ... a woman, two Jews and a cripple."

The Mountain States Legal Foundation is a non-profit law firm dedicated to defending private property rights and free enterprise — especially when hampered by federal land-management agencies. The foundation is currently challenging President Clinton’s recent national-monument designations in Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Arizona as unconstitutional.

Norton visited Montezuma County in June of 1998 to speak at the Dolores River Watershed Forum at the Anasazi Heritage Center. During her speech she argued that federal claims for reserved water rights in the San Juan National Forest should be negotiated rather than litigated in court.

Norton told the crowd gathered that she had fought to preserve states’ rights and had done battle with the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the rights of businesses.

Although the U.S. Forest Service is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Norton would head up the BLM, the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Geological Survey, Minerals Management Service, and the Bureau of Reclamation.

Mike Preston, Montezuma County federal lands coordinator, said Monday he was "encouraged" by Norton’s selection.

"One of the issues that we’re going to be looking at is the role of local communities in the public land-planning and decision-making," said Preston.

"I think Montezuma County is clearly trying to really develop local participation in all of this just because the stakes are so important. And with her background and some of the things that she said so far, we’re sort of encouraged in that respect."

Preston also noted that coordination between federal land-management agencies within the Bush administration will be a key element of any change in public-lands policy.

For local residents angry after the designation of the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, skepticism about Norton’s appointment still remains high.

"Although I think anybody would be better than Babbitt, it remains to be seen what Gale Norton will do with it," explained local resident Neva Kindred, a member of the Southwest Colorado Landowners Association. "Whatever her opinions of things on the West, it still hinges an awful lot on what the president and his cabinet would try to do. I would hope that they would try to start undoing some of the damage that has been done."

Kindred said she was "not impressed" by Norton’s view on federally reserved water rights, but had no quibble with her as attorney general. "She seemed reasonably conservative, but not what you’d call out in right field or anything," said Kindred, who heard Norton speak at the 1998 forum.

Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.) praised the nomination of Norton. "Colorado and the entire West should be thrilled by the nomination of Gale Norton as Secretary of Interior," he said in a press release. "Gale is a pre-eminent expert on public land and resource issues who believes deeply in the importance of protecting our natural treasures in a balanced, common-sense fashion."

Colorado environmentalists have expressed some concern that Norton will try to further her former advocacy of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but say that her appointment would not be entirely negative.

"I think that Bush’s appointment of Norton, background aside, is not a bad thing for conservationists because I think that it is going to allow us to still be at the table," commented Susan Kirkpatrick, former mayor of Fort Collins and executive director of Colorado’s Audubon Society.

"I think that the conservation community should recognize that Bush won, and he’s not going to put in the president of the Sierra Club," she explained.

Mark Pearson, public-lands director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, an environmental coalition based in Durango, said there is room for concern but putting controversial environmental issues to the forefront is still politically untenable at this point.

"The environment was the single issue that Bush was out of step with the majority of the American people," said Pearson.