** Only three BLM employees moved to new headquarters
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Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Bureau of Land Management ([link removed])

As President Biden's nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management prepares for her confirmation hearing this morning, the Interior Department made a stunning confession ([link removed]) : just three BLM employees accepted their forced relocation to the agency's new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Previously, the agency had said that 87 percent of affected employees ([link removed]) had resigned or found new jobs rather than move out of Washington, DC. Colorado Newsline reporter Chase Woodruff recently visited the headquarters building and found it completely deserted ([link removed]) . A security guard said employees were “mostly teleworking.”

The revelation regarding the headquarters move, which was overseen by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and former acting BLM head William Perry Pendley, puts new urgency on the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning ([link removed]) to run the land management agency. More than 100 conservation groups ([link removed]) across the ideological spectrum sent a letter to Senate leaders on Monday urging them to confirm Stone-Manning.

The broad range of support for Stone-Manning is reflected in recent op-eds ([link removed]) and editorials ([link removed]) that note she is both extremely qualified and is known as a consensus-builder—a stark contrast to the Trump administration, which pulled Pendley's nomination once it became clear he would have trouble getting confirmed even by a Republican-controlled Senate.

Stone-Manning's confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to start at 8:00 am Mountain Time ([link removed]) this morning.
Quick hits


** 100,000 acres burn in Arizona as West faces bleak fire outlook
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CNN ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed])


** Biden's 30x30 plan: bureaucratic bogeyman or real climate plan?
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Mountain Journal ([link removed])


** How bankruptcy lets oil companies evade cleanup rules
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Grist ([link removed])


** As Biden's BLM pick awaits confirmation, Grand Junction headquarters sits empty
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Colorado Newsline ([link removed]) | NPR ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | Missoula Current ([link removed]) | Arizona Republic ([link removed]) (Opinion) | Billings Gazette ([link removed]) (Editorial)


** Alaska Native group agrees to protect its land, dealing another blow to Pebble Mine proposal
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Prairie-Chicken listing to put oil and gas, wind farms in crosshairs
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Bloomberg ([link removed])


** Survey: Southern Utah residents want a water pipeline, but don't want to pay for it
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The Spectrum ([link removed])


** Worsening drought weighs on farmers' mental health
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KUNC ([link removed])
Quote of the day
So here’s the question: Will Republican Steve Daines subvert his political and policy differences with Stone-Manning and get behind an unassailably qualified Montana candidate? Or will he continue to play the shrill, strident partisan role he has taken on this session, ever since fund-raising off spurious allegations that Democrats were trying to ‘steal the election’? We hope he is bigger than that.”
—Billings Gazette Editorial Board ([link removed])
Picture this


** @Interior ([link removed])
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Does the Big Hole River float your boat? A series of small @BLMNational ([link removed]) recreation sites are located along a 73-mile stretch of the Big Hole River in Montana. The river offers blue ribbon trout fishing and excellent float boating! #FishingAndBoatingWeek ([link removed])

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