Bruce Babbitt, in conversation with Peter Gleick February 13, 2006

"Bruce Babbitt was Secretary of the Interior of the United States from 1993 until 2001. Babbitt grew up on a ranch in northern Arizona, where he was inspired by his state's natural and cultural heritage from an early age. Serving first as Arizona's Attorney General and later as the Governor of Arizona for nine years and head of the League of Conservative Voters, Babbitt is committed to environmental stewardship in his home state and the nation. He became one of the most important architects of environmental policy under the Clinton Administration. Never shy about tackling complex and controversial issues in public land management, Babbitt championed reforms to mining, grazing, and endangered species laws. Among his seminal contributions as Secretary of the Interior was the formation of the historic Delta Bay Accord. The Delta Bay Accord is celebrated for reducing tensions in California's water wars, preserving the old growth Headwaters Forest, and drafting the interagency plans for the restoration of the Everglades in Florida, regarded as the largest environmental restoration project in American history. His first book, Cities in the Wilderness, outlines Babbitt's inspiring model of federal and state cooperation to plan for land development and conservation in the United States."