Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton hasn't quite hit the age where she can obtain a $10 "senior pass" from the National Park Service to allow her lifetime access to all the nation's federal parklands, but she acknowledges the popularity of the program.

And at the same time, she wonders whether a cash-strapped federal government shouldn't rethink the effort.

"People drive up to the park entrance in their quarter-million-dollar recreational vehicle and show the pass they paid $10 for 10 years ago," Norton said this morning at a Capitol Hill conference hosted by the Conservation Leadership Council (CLC). "It is a great example of how people don't really connect the benefits that come to them with the cost that it takes to provide those benefits."

The CLC has spent plenty of time in recent months thinking about the costs associated with the country's many environmental challenges and has sought to provide solutions that conservatives can embrace.

Formed last year and featuring several former George W. Bush administration officials, CLC hopes to be a new voice for free-market, limited-government conservation efforts that can garner support and reignite environmental debate in conservative and libertarian circles.

Rather than throw more regulation and more federal dollars at the country's problems, CLC officials say they want to unleash the free market to create better environmental policies.

Among those Bush-era officials who have joined the council are Norton, former Secretary of Agriculture and former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer, former Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett and former White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton.

As part of today's conference, CLC offered up six policy papers detailing its suggestions for tackling challenges ranging from energy and water security to species protection and land management.

One paper authored by researchers from the free-market Reason Foundation discusses efforts in some states to operate state parks through public-private partnerships.

Another paper reviews an ongoing effort in Colorado to create a market system that provides incentives for buyers and sellers to invest in protecting wildlife habitats before they are listed under the Endangered Species Act. A paper discussing the challenges facing Florida's declining coral reefs discusses the benefits of using restoration zoning and aquaculture leases to generate stable funding mechanisms for reef restoration.

"We sought authors who could present fresh ideas reflecting the council's limited-government approach," Norton said of the proposals. "Instead of big government regulation, we looked for ways to bring communities together. Instead of destroying jobs and economic opportunity, we sought ways to provide the regulatory certainty."

After the event, Norton acknowledged that she hasn't put together a full study on ending NPS's lifetime senior pass program but said today that it is an example of exploring "ways to capture the ingenuity we have in the marketplace."