Administration holds meetings on conservation plan

The Obama administration is launching public meetings on its new conservation plan for federal land.

The administration is focused on President Barack Obama's "America's Great Outdoors" initiative. Public meetings, starting in Montana, will look for local conservation ideas.

A meeting is being held Tuesday on the doorstep of Montana's Crown of the Continent ecosystem, which stretches through declared wilderness and Glacier National Park.

The meeting features U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, along with Montana's governor and two U.S. senators, all Democrats.

The administration has taken heat from Republicans and others after an internal Interior Department memo earlier this year showed consideration for presidential monument declarations in nine western states.