Interior Minister, outdoor activities at work description
Finding Sally Jewell in the office of Washington, DC is hard to find.
She has been the secretary of the Ministry of the Interior for more than a year, and she spent most of her time on the scene. The head of the federal agency oversees about 400 national parks and nearly 300 million acres of federal land, which is inevitable.
“This is in the job description,” she said. “This is also an interesting part of this work.”
Recently, Jewel has been at the forefront of the government’s efforts to raise awareness of the threat of climate change.
During a recent visit to Jamestown, Virginia, part of the first successful British Colony and Colonial National Historic Park, Jewel witnessed the damage caused by high water levels in recent storms to historical sites and artifacts.
Jamestown is already low-lying, and in recent years a few feet of coastline have disappeared.
“We consider the economic impact of storms and sea level rise and what we feel in climate change,” Jewel said. “I don’t think we always think about the impact on our history and culture, and our definition as a nation. In Jamestown, all of this really blends together.”
Jewell is a decoration 58. As you might expect, there are people who can hike, climb, kayaking, and once again run the equipment retailer REI. Her extensive business experience, including banking and energy experience, makes her unusual in the Obama administration.
Sitting at the picnic table outside the Jamestown Visitor Center, she said that operating the cabinet department is a little different from running a business.
“There are some fundamental differences between government and the private sector. I know a lot more today than I did a year ago.”
One of the fundamental differences, Jewel said, is taking risks. In business, even if you fail, you will be rewarded for taking risks. She said that this is not the case in the government.
“In the government, try new things. If you make a mistake, you will take drugs in front of some kind of congressional hearing. People will say, ‘Why are you taking this risk?’ So, in order to convince your team they need Thinking in different ways, they need to take risks, which is usually a reward they have never received.”
Jewel said one of the risks that encouraged her department to work with the private sector was to attract young people to the outdoors.
“The rewards are extraordinary,” Jewel said. “It is providing these young people with a map of potential future careers they have never heard of, places they have never known before, because they plant trees or work they do, they will always be connected.”
Another sense of frustration in Jewel revolves around complaints that Washington often hears – the Senate confirms the freezing pace of the program. In her four-year tenure, Jewel said that most of her assistant secretary positions were “changing” and that there were no deputies from July to the end of February. Then she said that the nomination was unanimously affirmed. “So this is not controversial; it is dysfunctional.”
The Ministry of the Interior has a wide range of responsibilities, including managing the 300 million acres of federal land. This spring, the agency’s Land Administration was involved in a highly politicized incident when he refused to pay for grazing fees and tried to remove Nevada’s rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle from federal land.
It led to armed confrontation between Bondi supporters and federal law enforcement agencies. Jewel defended BLM’s activities.
“For those who openly and deliberately don’t pay for grazing, it destroys the law-abiding nature of other ranchers,” she said. “We can’t represent it. We won’t support it.”
It is not clear how the government will respond to the Bondi case in the next step, but Jewel said that her job is to carry out the tasks of the Ministry of the Interior. She said that her previous business experience helped her achieve this, and she found a “very willing” view at the White House
