The federal government's chief land manager visited the sometimes-hostile territory of Utah on Monday and assured the state's leaders he is open to compromise.

On an early stop of what he called a national listening tour to advise President Barack Obama on citizens' ideas for a 21st-century conservation doctrine, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he is a Colorado rancher who understands Utahns' desires to balance resource protection with their economy and cultural heritage.

Meeting with Gov. Gary Herbert's Balanced Resource Council at the Capitol, Salazar said he is listening to Utahns' complaints and is eager to work out compromises on roads, national monuments, endangered species and other contentious issues.

"We can agree on so many issues," Salazar said after the meeting, which about 120 people attended.

It was a conciliatory tone praised by state officials, but it left an attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance skeptical.

This state is hardly progressive when it comes to wilderness designation and other land-use issues, SUWA staff attorney Steve Bloch said, so his group is hoping for forceful action from Salazar even if in conflict with Utah.

"He tailored his speech to his audience," Bloch said.

High on the council's list during Monday's meeting was settlement of the decades-old fight over county control of historic roads across federal lands: the so-called RS 2477 roads that southern Utah counties have fought for in court.

Ted Wilson, a former Salt Lake City mayor and chairman of the governor's council, pitched a plan for environmentalists, recreationists, the counties and the state and federal governments to negotiate which roads the federal government will acknowledge and which the counties might dismiss.

Wilson said some will remain too controversial and will continue to need court review. But many aren't contentious, he said, and working together to resolve them could create good will that would help in settling the others.

State Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, told Salazar there are some "no-brainer" roads that the counties should have the rights to maintain. Among them, he said, is the Hole in the Rock road, a dirt track that follows the path of Mormon pioneers southeast out of Escalante to a canyon rim overlooking Lake Powell. Access across federal lands to both private and state parcels is crucial to the state's economy, said Noel, one of the Legislature's most outspoken critics of federal land management who encouraged an illegal off-road rally across the southern Utah's protected Paria River last year.

Salazar said he will consider the collaborative approach on roads.

"Maybe we can figure out a way forward," he said, agreeing that the disputes have dragged on too long. "Let's put our shoulders to the wheel and try to make it happen."

The secretary had a private breakfast with Utah's governor, the first lady and the resource council. Salazar said those talks included discussion about the Legislature's new law authorizing the use of eminent domain to take federal lands for access to state lands with coal and other development potential.

The law's constitutionality will likely be resolved in court, he said, but added the measure succeeded if its proponents were trying to alert him to the need for dialogue about access.

"The message is received," Salazar said. "We need to work together."

The Interior boss also reiterated a pledge not to seek new national monuments without participation from state and local officials. A leaked memo surfaced in February that included San Juan County's Cedar Mesa and Emery County's San Rafael Swell on a list of potential monuments.

Federal officials have insisted the document was merely an effort to gather ideas from staff.

Salazar said Monday that his history in Colorado points to collaboration, including the designation of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, which pleased environmentalists and ranchers who saw their long-disputed water rights safeguarded.

The same applies to continuing discussions of wilderness designations, which Salazar said must seek local consensus similar to a 2009 Washington County wilderness bill backed by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.

"It's best," Salazar said, "when it is the people who are on the ground who are essentially raising the need for a designation."

Herbert said he trusts Salazar to seek consensus instead of merely Washington decrees.

"I feel very comfortable," the governor said, "with Secretary Ken Salazar as a man of integrity."