BOARD01164

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2006
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Federal and Interstate

Secretary Norton Announces Departure from Interior: After five years ofleading cooperative .
conservation efforts and responsible energy development, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton announced
March 10" that she will leave the President's Cabinet at the end of March. In a letter to President Bush,
Secretary Norton thanked the President, "for inviting me to be part of your Administration for a
meaningful and rewarding five years."

Norton, 51, is the first woman to serve as the Secretary of the Interior. She is the 48th Interior Secretary
and has been in office longer than all but six of her predecessors. Norton was sworn in as Secretary on
January 31, 200 I. After winning re-election, President Bush asked Secretary Norton to continue serving
in his Administration.

In the past year, Norton completed nearly all of the goals that she had set to accomplish. Congress passed
the Energy Policy Act of 2005 in July. The Department initiated the first-ever White House Conference
on Cooperative Conservation in August. The House of Representatives passed legislation to improve the
Endangered Species Act in September. In November, Congress came within three votes of opening the
1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to responsible energy development. In February, at
Norton's urging, the seven states of the Colorado River Basin reached preliminary agreement on issues
that had been unresolved for decades. Also in February, Secretary Norton released the draft five-year plan
for offshore energy development.

In her five years at Interior, Secretary Norton's focus has been to:

. Encourage Cooperative Conservation throughout the United States
. Implement the President's Healthy Forests Initiative
. Negotiate an end to decades-long water conflicts in the West
. Improve national parks and wildlife refuges
. Promote responsible energy development
. Improve services to Indian country
. Improve science for a changing world
. Implement the President's Management Agenda

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Ditch Bill Update - Forest Service Transition: The Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region has been
transitioning and establishing procedures to better process Ditch Bill applications. Jeff Ulrich will be
taking over as the Rocky Mountain Ditch Bill coordinator, replacing Marcia Pfleiderer. Jeff will continue
as coordinator through next September and is stationed out of the Denver office. The Region is
scheduling face-to-face meetings with those Ditch Bill applicants in endangered species recovery
agreement areas to discuss those agreements, is revising its Ditch bill data base and reporting methods
and is developing procedures in cooperation with the State of Colorado to better move applications
through the applications process.

If you have specific questions, please contact Jeffery Ulrich at:

Jeffery L. Ulrich
R-2 Ditch Bill Coordinator
740 Simms Street
Golden, CO 80401
303-275-5091
[e-mail]

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