Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, is to be nominated as soon as Thursday. The congressional aides familiar with the decision spoke on condition of anonymity because the White House had yet to announce it.

Sherman is a member of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter's cabinet and has overseen state efforts to develop a plan for so-called roadless areas in remote national forests. National and regional conservation, hunting and angling groups have denounced Colorado's plan as weaker than a 2001 rule developed by former President Bill Clinton.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.