Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton jumped ship from the Bush Administration unexpectedly yesterday, saying in a March 9 resignation letter to the President, "it is time for me to leave this mountain you gave me to climb," and adding that she would be entering the private sector at the end of the month. The Department of Interior manages about one-fifth of the land in the U.S.

The first woman to head the 150-year-old department, Norton gave no indication of exactly where she’d be heading, but she did suggest that she hopes “to end up closer to the mountains we love in the West."

It better not be too close to any enviromentally mindful communities, as she might find her homestead egged and toilet papered. Suffice it to say that Norton’s industry-friendly policies have not been popular in green circles. Summing up her many transgressions against conservation, Grist.org writes: "In her tendentious career at Interior, Norton stripped protection from wilderness areas, pushed for more logging, advocated increased oil and gas drilling, and proclaimed a love of snowmobiles that bordered on the erotic.”

Norton has been publicly rebuffed by high-profile environmentalists such as Robert Redford, whom she once asked to join her in a PR event releasing a condor (harking back to his film Three Days of the Condor ). He declined in a searing and widely circulated letter to her that said: "I intend to use what time I have to do what I can to focus on the devastating environmental repercussions of the ... decisions you are now making in your current capacity at the Interior Department."

In a subsequent Grist interview, Redford recalled the event, saying “I was like, Hello? I've already released a condor, thanks! Twelve years ago! And meanwhile you shred the rest of the country with mining and gas drilling and timber stuff and you're going to release a condor and you think that's going to make up for what you are doing?"

At the very least, Norton better not go looking for opportunities in Hollywood.

Image credit: DOI.gov