The order directed the departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Defense, and the Environmental Protection Agency to "properly accommodate" local participation in decision-making and take private landowner interests into account while pursuing programs, projects and activities.

Accompanying the order was a presidential statement that sought to compare the new cooperative policy with grass-roots environmental movements that ushered in the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act a generation ago.

"Over the last three decades, we have made remarkable progress, working together to meet our conservation goals and improve the quality of our air and water," Bush said in the statement.

The White House issued the executive order and statement as Bush traveled through New Mexico on a campaign swing.

Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, one of Bush's environmental critics, dismissed the measure as an election-year stunt.

"This executive order, issued at a campaign appearance in a battleground state, will do about as much for conservation as George Bush's 'compassionate conservatism' has done for compassion," Pope said.

Bush, a Republican, built his 2000 presidential campaign around "compassionate conservatism," promising to address social issues like education that had been largely Democratic agenda items, but critics say Bush has not followed through.

Other environmentalists expressed concern that Thursday's ordered changes would weaken environmental protections and give private interest a new hand in writing land-use policy.

"It seems like another way to allow unfettered access to lands by private industries," Rob Perks, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Bush's order also requires agency heads to provide an annual progress report to the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The order also directed the council to host a White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation within a year.