CONSERVATION CORNER
Griles Served Country Well
by James L. Cummins

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton recently received with regret a resignation letter to President George Bush from Steven Griles, the Department of Interior's deputy secretary. The Deputy Secretary is the number two position at the Department.

In his resignation letter to the President, Griles wrote, "In 2001, you paid me the highest compliment by nominating me to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Interior. It has been a great honor to serve within your Administration, which recognizes that for conservation efforts to be successful the government must involve the people who live and work on the land."

In accepting Griles' letter, Norton wrote back to him, "Yours is the letter I hoped would never come." She said Griles' work has been outstanding and that he will be greatly missed. She reflected on what his position has meant to the Department and how much they have been able to accomplish with their close partnership, including improving the health of wildlife refuges and our national parks.

"I know that the frustrations of Indian Trust litigation have taken a toll on you and the other dedicated employees who labored countless evenings and weekends with you. You have done an exemplary job on the difficult task of improving Interior's performance in upholding our fiduciary obligations to American Indians. Without your perseverance and focused commitment, we would never have achieved so much progress."

Griles also wrote the President that he believes the strong foundation of cooperative conservation will be enhanced during the second term. "I have enjoyed working to promote cooperative conservation and to appropriately include local participation in Federal decision-making. Our effort to treat local governments as cooperating partners has resulted in better decisions that are broadly supported by local communities."

Personally, I will miss Secretary Griles. He has done a fantastic job handling some very difficult issues. But the thing I appreciate most about him is that he would always take time to listen to me and I always tried to give him both sides of the story. He also had a great appreciation for private landowners and that has been rather rare at the Department of Interior. Considering Secretary Norton's appreciation for private landowners as well, I am sure that appreciation will continue.

Steve has done a superb job and will be missed. I hope his future career will continue to involve conservation, as his knowledge and experience are extremely valuable to this Nation.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi. Their web site is www.wildlifemiss.org.