In January, The New York Times greeted the Obama administration's nomination of Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar as secretary of the Interior with an editorial headlined: "Is Ken Salazar Too Nice?"

So far, the answer is no. But some heavy lifts lie ahead that will determine if he's tough enough to repair much of the damage the Bush administration inflicted on the West.

Since his confirmation Salazar has withdrawn oil and gas leases offered by the previous administration within sight of some of Utah's great scenic glories, including Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument. He has postponed other lease sales in Wyoming in deference to Gov. Dave Freudenthal's concerns about their impacts on wildlife. He has blocked what he called the Bush administration's "headlong rush" to open up parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to oil shale development, replacing it with a plan that would study its demands on already stressed water and power supplies. And he has made renewable energy development on public lands a priority.

These early decisions promise a better balance, one that will honor the interests of those who see more than BTUs when they look out on the West's rangelands, forests and parks.

The Bush administration treated the public lands of the West as one big oil and gas patch to be plundered. Between 2001 and 2007, the number of drilling permits approved by the BLM each year more than doubled to more than 7,100. The numbers far exceeded the pace of actual drilling, building a reserve that could lock in the rush to develop for years to come.

Even worse, the Bush administration approved or pushed for development in parts of the West of critical importance for wildlife and cherished for generations by hunters, anglers and other recreational users. They included the Roan Plateau in Colorado, the Wyoming Range, New Mexico's Otero Mesa and others.

Undoing the worst of this will take some resolve:

» Salazar and the Obama administration should reverse a series of Bush administration executive orders and instructions to the BLM that left little discretion for agency employees to limit drilling and protect lands where other values such as wildlife and recreation are paramount.

» The new administration should support the repeal of provisions in the 2005 Energy Act that exempt the energy industry from important environmental and public health protections in the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.

» Talks have begun between Interior and environmental groups to settle a lawsuit that seeks to block energy development on and around the Roan Plateau, where the Bush administration auctioned drilling rights for $114 million. A suspension of those leases is within Salazar's power; a buyback of the leases covering the top of the plateau would preserve the Roan as a haven for wildlife and outdoor recreation.

» Salazar should begin a do-over of six 20-year management plans on 11 million acres of federal land in Utah that were completed last year. Those plans would open about 80 percent of the lands to oil and gas development, and 17,000 miles of trails to off-road vehicles. In the interim, Interior can bar development in areas the BLM previously said qualify for wilderness protection.

» Salazar should insist the BLM face up to the challenge of mounting air pollution in areas with extensive oil and gas development. When rural areas of the West like Sublette County, Wyo., have ozone alerts like Los Angeles, something is amiss.

That's only a partial list, but it's a start that would help usher in a new day for western public lands. For a lot of us in the West, a bit of a Salazar mean streak would be welcome.

Tom Kenworthy is a Colorado-based senior fellow with The Center for American Progress.