Monitor Breakfast

Gale Norton is the nation's 48th secretary of the interior. Secretary Norton comes to the job after serving as attorney general of Colorado. Prior to that, she served in Washington as associate solicitor of the Interior Department and as deputy secretary of agriculture. She has also been senior attorney for the Mountain States Legal Foundation. Her bachelor's and law degree are both from the University of Denver.

The secretary manages a sprawling department that operates in 2,400 locations and manages one fifth of the land in the US – some 507 million acres. It's a lightening rod for controversy given its widespread environmental and social impact.

"Fire is still a tool for us. This year we have let very few fires burn themselves out naturally just because it is so dry that you can't keep them under control. In more normal years, we let more fires burn naturally ... Fire is a natural part of the environment. The natural fires are much smaller and do much less damage to the forest. Once we restore thinner forests, then we can maintain those more easily using fire. So fire can again become a better tool for us if we get rid of the overly dense undergrowth that we have today."

"We have become much more aware of visitor safety. We, at a number of our areas, have increased the screening of visitors going in. We are focusing more on that aspect. When you think of the 4th of July celebration on the Mall this year, security was a major concern for us. It is just something we are going to have to start factoring in. We are much more in contact with the law enforcement and intelligence agencies so that we would know about threats that might apply to our areas. And we take much more seriously the security of our infrastructure – dams are a major example of that. Our facilities are partly infrastructure things, like dams, and also working with companies that operate the oil and gas pipelines and offshore drilling facilities. Also we have the symbolic icons of the country–the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument. So for those we need to be very aware of threats that might come about because of the important things those mean to Americans."

"There are some things the scientists view as being pretty well established. And some things that are not. The question of whether temperatures are rising I think is pretty well established. The question of how much that is caused by man as opposed to part of the continuing process of coming out of the ice age or natural fluctuations –there is less certainty about that. When you get into things like saying global warming is going to cause a particular climate factor, like global warming is going to cause a hurricane or more hurricanes to affect this area, there is certainly far less certainty as to those things."

"We are at a point where the terms of the National Indian Gaming commissioners have all expired. So we are replacing all the members of that commission. My overall approach is to see that gaming is conducted in a way that maintains credibility and honesty in those operations. There are certainly economic benefits that have come to the tribes through casino gaming. That is certainly endangered if that gaming becomes corrupt..."

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