Cecil Andrus, Former Idaho Governor, Dies at Age 85
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Former Carter administration Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus, who engineered the conservation of millions of acres of Alaska land, has died.
Daughter Tracy Andrus says her father died late Wednesday of complications from lung cancer. He was 85.
Andrus was in his second term as Idaho governor when Jimmy Carter chose him as his interior secretary. Andrus later served two more terms as governor after his service in Washington, D.C.
Despite criticism from many Alaskans, the Carter administration declared more than 100 million acres of public land in the state as protected areas. A bill passed in Congress late in Carter's term created national parks, wildlife refuges and national forests in much of that acreage.