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Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning opened up about her priorities for America's public lands. In an in-depth conversation with David McCumber, the editor of Montana Standard, Stone-Manning talked candidly about everything from rebuilding the agency to oil and gas leasing to climate change.
Addressing the political polarization around climate policy, Stone-Manning said "I like the river analogy. When you're going down a raging river and you see a giant hole, one of the fun things to do is plunge into it and see if you survive. But on the other hand, you can call out, 'hole on the left' and work together to skirt it. That's what the polarization is to me — a 'hole on the left' situation. Let's acknowledge it and work around it to get to the goal, which is downstream, boat right side up."
Stone-Manning also revealed that the bureau is working on new rules governing grazing across BLM lands. "We’re in the midst of what some people call a megadrought and others call the new normal," she said. "We have to figure out how to manage for the health of the landscape. In many cases cows can help us do that if we’re really smart about how we use the tool that we call grazing. Outcome-based grazing is the new effort at the agency. The thought behind it is exactly where we need to go: Determine the outcome we’re looking for on the landscape and graze accordingly."
Read much more from Stone-Manning in her full interview.
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The last Administration said it had an energy-dominant agenda for public lands. We need to get back to our true calling, under the law, of being a multiple-use agency. Addressing conservation and climate change is part of that multiple use.”
