** Despite objections, BLM finalizes headquarters relocation
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Tuesday, August 11, 2020
The relocated Bureau of Land Management headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado. Source: @BLMNational ([link removed])

Yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management announced ([link removed]) the official establishment of its new agency headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado. The move cost the agency more than 70 percent ([link removed]) of its Washington, D.C.-based employees, leaving just 61 of the agency's 10,000 total employees in the nation's capitol. The new headquarters in Grand Junction has struggled to fill the 25 new vacant positions ([link removed]) , including senior leadership posts. As of June, just 30 percent ([link removed]) of employees designated to move had accepted their relocation
assignments.

The proposal to move the agency's headquarters out of D.C. has been met with strong opposition from the start, including from powerful lawmakers in the West, who disagree with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt ([link removed]) and others that the move will bring employees closer to the lands they manage, disregarding that roughly 95 percent ([link removed]) of BLM employees are already located outside Washington, D.C.

New Mexico Senator Tom Udall, the Ranking member of the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee, said ([link removed]) in response to the announcement yesterday, "The BLM’s poorly-executed relocation effort is a transparent attempt to weaken the agency and undermine the public servants who work there—or used to work there. There’s little to celebrate here."


** Podcast: The fight to save Bristol Bay in Alaska
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With the clock ticking on a final Record of Decision ([link removed]) regarding the controversial Pebble Mine ([link removed]) project in Alaska, CWP's "Go West, Young Podcast ([link removed]) " has a conversation with documentary film director Mark Titus ([link removed]) and United Tribes of ([link removed]) Bristol ([link removed]) Bay ([link removed]) 's ([link removed]) Alannah Hurley about Mark's film, The Wild ([link removed]) .
Quick hits


** EPA expected to roll back methane regulations
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New York Times ([link removed]) | Wall Street Journal ([link removed])


** Despite objections, BLM finalizes headquarters relocation
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The Hill ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Local Utah conservation groups kept out of environmental reviews for vegetation removal
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St. George News ([link removed])


** As falling prices make shale production unprofitable, oil drilling drops to 15-year low
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Bloomberg ([link removed])


** National Parks are overcrowded despite covid-19 risk
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National Public Radio ([link removed])


** Critics say the BLM's expedited environmental reviews for mining projects shut local residents out of the process
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Nevada Independent ([link removed])


** The ultimate travel guide for Rocky Mountain National Park
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Outside ([link removed])


** Opinion: It's time to fix our broken oil and gas leasing system
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Washington Examiner ([link removed])
Quote of the day
While people may disagree about the future of fossil fuel extraction on public lands, we can surely agree that critical wildlife habitat and recreational areas should be avoided, that all leasing should be conducted through transparent, competitive processes that result in companies paying fair-market royalties and fees, and that strong safeguards and bonding requirements should be in place to reclaim drilling sites."
—Collin O’Mara ([link removed]) , president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation & David Jenkins ([link removed]) , president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship.
Picture this


** @Interior ([link removed])
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Named after the Manhattan street lined with skyscrapers, the Park Avenue Trail
@ArchesNPS ([link removed]) is lined with dramatic red rock formations with fantastic names like Courthouse Towers, the Three Gossips & Sheep Rock #Utah ([link removed])

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