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President Biden has nominated longtime conservationist Tracy Stone-Manning to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Stone-Manning has spent decades advocating for public land conservation as a senior executive at the National Wildlife Federation, chief of staff for Montana Governor Steve Bullock, and as an advisor to Montana Senator Jon Tester. The nomination drew widespread praise on Capitol Hill, including from New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, who called her a "rock star who understands the access issues that are so important to the identity of Western Americans."
The nomination comes at a critical juncture for the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees one-tenth of all lands in the United States and has a staff of roughly 10,000. Under the Trump administration, the Bureau of Land Management never had a permanent director, yet still managed to gut the agency's headquarters by moving to Grand Junction, Colorado, forcing 87% of impacted staff to resign or retire.
While the Trump administration viewed the Bureau of Land Management as a rubber stamp for drilling and mining projects, Stone-Manning will play a key role in renewing a sense of balance in managing our public lands. Currently, the agency is undertaking a long-overdue review of the broken oil and gas leasing system on public lands and considering recommendations to restore protections for BLM-managed Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.
NRDC's Sharon Buccino on Haaland's fast start
In the latest episode of CWP's podcast, The Landscape, Sharon Buccino of the Natural Resources Defense Council joins us to break down the new set of secretarial orders signed by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, and look at the future of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
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When I see these petroglyphs, I think about how someone spent the time to peck out that image, put it on this rock and tell our history. Now, I’m here doing the exact same thing to preserve our history.”
