Stealing our public lands

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. BLM lands cover about 10% of the U.S., mostly in the west. All people in this country own this land for: recreation, camping, fishing, relaxation, hunting, boating, wilderness, National Monuments, grazing, oil and gas and minerals.

On July 15, the “champion” of the federal to state land transfer movement, William Perry Pendley, former president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, was hired by BLM as its deputy director of policy and programs. This was one day before Joseph Balash, assistant DOI secretary for land and minerals management, sent a letter to Congress saying BLM’s headquarters (222 people) was moving to Grand Junction, Colorado, and other western offices. Pendley has strongly supported the federal to state land transfer movement in Utah and other states and advocates for the federal government to sell off BLM land.

According to Patrick Shea, who served as BLM director, “the BLM is meant to serve all U.S. citizens, not just those from Western states” and further, it is “essential for the BLM director to be in Washington in order to engage with Congress and other Interior agencies, and to advocate for the budget. They want to gradually dissolve the federal BLM agency and transfer the responsibility and, more importantly, the assets to states, which robs the rest of the country of an asset [they own and] they’ve been paying for…”

Any surprise during this administration? This is outrageous stealing. Contact your representatives.

Kelly Courtright

Deer Park