Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Trump's pick to run BLM withdraws her nomination
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Friday, April 11, 2025
Kathleen Sgamma; CSPAN screenshot

Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma has withdrawn her nomination to lead the Bureau of Land Management, according to Senator Mike Lee, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Lee announced Sgamma’s decision at the beginning of a Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing ([link removed]) that was scheduled to include Sgamma this morning.

Earlier this week, the news outlet Documented published a memo ([link removed]) Sgamma wrote to members of WEA in 2021 after the January 6 insurrection. In it, she said she was “disgusted by the violence” that day and by “President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it.” The private memo was first posted in 2021 ([link removed]) by Documented editor Nick Surgey.

“The Trump administration should avoid nominating anyone else with massive conflicts of interest to lead the Bureau of Land Management, and instead focus on implementing Congress’s multiple-use mandate for America’s public lands,” Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Aaron Weiss said in a statement ([link removed]) .

Burgum plans to consolidate offices within Interior

The Interior department is planning to greatly reduce its administrative and support function workforce, according to reporting in the publication Government Executive ([link removed]) . Interior will fold areas such as IT, communications, finance, human resources, and contracting into one office within the department, rather than the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service maintaining their own staff to provide those services. This will lead to further layoffs within the Interior department and has already resulted in a number of employees accepting a buyout offer ([link removed]) that ended Wednesday.


** Quick hits
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Oil and gas industry advocate Kathleen Sgamma withdraws from consideration to lead BLM

Colorado Sun ([link removed]) | Public Domain ([link removed]) | Inside Climate News ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed])

Interior fires senior leaders after fight over DOGE access to payroll system

Nextgov ([link removed])

'Freedom Cities' push on public land gains viability under Trump

Bloomberg Law ([link removed])

Citing Trump tariffs, Utah Iron shuts down mining operations in Iron County

St. George News ([link removed])

Amid fears of public land sales, Idaho Republican breaks with cohort in Congress

Idaho Statesman ([link removed])

Will the US housing crisis be exploited for a massive public lands sell-off?

Center for American Progress ([link removed])

Court ruling gives public access to 50,000 acres of federal land in Colorado

Post Independent ([link removed])

Lujan and Leger Fernandez reintroduce legislation to protect Chaco Canyon

SourceNM ([link removed])


** Quote of the day
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” Chaco Canyon holds the footprints and fingerprints of our ancestors. By reintroducing legislation to permanently protect these federal lands, our congressional partners honor our living heritage, and the centuries of prayers offered to safeguard it. This is not only about preserving an archaeological wonder—it’s about ensuring our ancestral gifts remain intact for future generations.”

—Acoma Pueblo Governor Charles Riley, SourceNM ([link removed])


** Picture This
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@canyonlandsnps ([link removed])
Have you ever seen sandstone boulders in Canyonlands that look bumpy? These bumps that appear on some boulders are called iron concretions.

Iron concretions are formed underground when iron minerals are left behind as groundwater flows through the soil or rock. As the water moves, the iron in the water gradually builds up and hardens into solid clumps, creating the concretions. These spherical iron concretions commonly range in size from a fraction of an inch to several inches in diameter. They are found throughout the Navajo Sandstone rock layer which was originally deposited around 180 to 190 million years ago.

Learn more about the geology of Canyonlands here: [link removed]

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