A member of a leading Flagstaff, Arizona ranching family, Babbitt is a lifelong environmentalist and committed outdoorsperson who has taken many backpacking trips in the Grand Canyon area. He served as Arizona governor from 1976-1987, successfully pushing through several wilderness designations and insisting upon comprehensive state legislation protecting the state’s groundwater aquifers.
President Clinton named him Secretary of the Interior and he served from 1993 through 2001, compiling a record equaled only by Stewart Udall. An intellectually curious geologist and lawyer, Babbitt took a hands-on approach toward the issues that captivated him most. Ignoring virulent opposition, he launched a new era in wildlife protection by reintroducing wolves in Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996, displaying the grace and compassion that our nation can sometimes summon in the name of conservation. He later reintroduced California condors, with their six-foot wing spans, in the Grand Canyon area. He became convinced that Colorado River endangered fish species in the Grand Canyon needed high Spring flows from Glen Canyon Dam to flush out artificially high sediment loads and create better habitat. He went ahead with the high flows, which represented the river’s natural regime, despite vigorous opposition from energy companies.
Babbitt also was the point person for Clinton’s ambitious program to protect expansive areas of federal lands as national monuments under the Antiquities Act; this 1906 statute has been a favorite of presidents, especially Theodore Roosevelt, since it allows for unilateral presidential action without any approval by Congress. Babbitt submitted to Clinton proclamations, all signed into law, for 20 new monuments and three expansions of existing monuments totaling nearly 8 million acres. The creation of the Clinton-Babbitt monuments, which protected some of the most contested and magnificent western landscapes, stands as one of the highest points in conservation history.
In all, Bruce Babbitt, with his love of the land, scientific background, knowledge of history, and experience as governor, came into office with an enlightened and firmly-held vision for the public lands based on protection and restoration of large landscapes. Then he acted upon that vision. He put it this way: “Restoration is about having the power to visualize, to say that we can imagine a landscape that we don't see today, that we can create, or recreate, a landscape that was seen by Lewis and Clark, Kit Carson, and our forebears. We can look to the past, and by understanding the past, visualize the future. And then engage communities and conservationists in the act of restoration. That has a lot of magic and power.”
America’s Top 10 Conservation Heroes is a series honoring the individuals and organizations that have made the biggest mark on conservation, environmental protection, and awareness of the outdoors. The series is written by Charles Wilkinson, Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado and author of fourteen books on law, history, and society in the American West.
America’s Top 10 Conservation Heroes
1. Theodore Roosevelt
2. John Muir
3. Rachel Carson
4. Stewart Udall
5. Aldo Leopold
6. Ansel Adams
7. Earthjustice
8. Henry David Thoreau
9. Edward Abbey
10. Bruce Babbitt