tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/bureau-of-land-management-36075/articlesBureau of Land Management – The Conversation2020-01-08T12:19:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1269902020-01-08T12:19:21Z2020-01-08T12:19:21ZMoving Bureau of Land Management headquarters to Colorado won’t be good for public lands<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308699/original/file-20200106-123403-1739qkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2100%2C1405&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sheep grazing on BLM land near Shoshone, Idaho.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/NQ6N1s">BLM/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration has pursued many controversial goals in managing U.S. public lands, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/president-trumps-national-monument-rollback-is-illegal-and-likely-to-be-reversed-in-court-88376">shrinking national monuments</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trump-administration-is-scrapping-a-collaborative-sage-grouse-protection-plan-to-expand-oil-and-gas-drilling-108398">cutting back protection for threatened species</a>. Its latest disruptive move targets the government employees who oversee these resources.</p>
<p>The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management oversees 245 million acres of public <a href="https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/BLM%20Administrative%20Units%202018%2036X40.pdf">lands</a>, mainly in the western U.S. The Trump administration is moving BLM’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to an office building in Grand Junction, Colorado that also houses oil and gas companies. Along with increasing energy development, reducing regulations and increasing access to public lands, agency officials call this move one of their top <a href="https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/bernhardt-to-guvs-expect-decision-soon-on-blm-headquarters-move/article_e0fbbf80-8c07-11e9-bd94-20677ce06c14.html">priorities</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1209234546534825984"}"></div></p>
<p>More than 95% of BLM employees <a href="https://publicland.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Dismantling-BLM.pdf">work in the West</a>. So why is it a top priority to move senior staff away from Washington, D.C., where policy decisions are made? And why are <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08102019/blm-move-western-states-federal-land-control-mining-sagebrush-rebel-interior">conservation groups</a> and <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/bureau-of-land-management-dozens-of-former-blm-officials-denounce-moving-headquarters-out-of-dc">former BLM officials</a> strongly opposed? </p>
<p>As scholars who study <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-1895-8.html">BLM</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XcJV-xEAAAAJ&hl=en">public land management</a>, we see this move as a radical transfer of control over national resources to Western states. Congress has tasked the agency with managing public lands “so that they are utilized in the combination that will best meet the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/or/regulations/files/FLPMA.pdf">present and future needs of the American people</a>.” In our view, the headquarters move runs counter to this goal.</p>
<h2>The interests of ‘private government’</h2>
<p>As the Trump administration likes to point out, BLM lands are <a href="https://www.blm.gov/office/national-office/hq-move-west">almost exclusively in the West</a>. The agency’s <a href="https://www.blm.gov/or/regulations/files/FLPMA.pdf">governing statute</a> directs it to manage those lands in ways that will protect their “scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archaeological values,” and will support land and wildlife conservation. They are also open for outdoor recreation and extractive uses, such as grazing, mining, oil and gas development and timber harvesting. </p>
<p>Up through the late 1960s, the federal government encouraged “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_rule">home rule</a>” of these resources, meaning that rural communities, natural resource industries and Western state governments controlled public land policy. Political scientist Philip Foss described this approach as “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Administration-Grazing-Public-Domain/dp/B0000CKNWQ">private government</a>” – a system in which interest groups effectively controlled agencies charged with overseeing and regulating public assets. And those groups overwhelmingly prioritized extractive land uses over conservation.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Original BLM logo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/">www.flickr.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Contemporary BLM emblem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/f0e9209c7b4dd8938f252c1f206a87f1">www.flickr.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>BLM’s first emblem, which it used from 1952 to 1964, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/blm/history/chap2.htm">reflected this philosophy</a>. It depicted a miner, a rancher, an engineer, a logger and a surveyor standing on the American frontier with Conestoga wagons behind them and an industrial landscape ahead. </p>
<p>In 1964 the agency created a <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US-DOI-BLM-logo.png">new emblem</a> that depicted mountains, meadows, a river and tree. BLM continued to encourage natural resource development, but it also gradually came to serve an increasingly broad constituency. Once derided by conservationists as the “Bureau of Livestock and Mines,” it became what former Arizona Governor and Interior Secretary Bruce <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060040203">Babbitt</a> would see as an agency also concerned with landscapes, monuments and conservation. </p>
<h2>Constituencies in a changing West</h2>
<p>This evolution has angered some conservatives in the West and fueled <a href="https://theconversation.com/malheur-occupation-in-oregon-whose-land-is-it-really-52741">armed confrontations</a> between public lands users, such as rancher <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/bundy-brothers-acquitted-in-takeover-of-oregon-wildlife-refuge.html">Cliven Bundy</a> and BLM staff. In what we view as an egregious example of catering to some Western interests, acting BLM Director William Perry Pendley stated in November 2019 that his agency’s law enforcement professionals would <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061644675">defer to their local counterparts</a>, apparently even on federal land. </p>
<p>But although Western land management often is cast as a standoff between competing federal and regional priorities, in reality the issue is much more complicated and nuanced. There also are tensions in the West between residents who value public lands as sites for resource extraction, others who see economic opportunity fueled by a growing recreation economy and still others who appreciate these areas for their ecological value and <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/amenity-values">intrinsic beauty</a>.</p>
<h2>A self-inflicted brain drain</h2>
<p>The job of BLM leaders in Washington, D.C. is to make decisions that respond to directives from the president and Congress. Moving them west won’t change that dynamic – but it could impoverish agency decision making in several ways. </p>
<p>First, senior agency staff will have more difficulty communicating with Congress. Second, the White House and Congress will still make broad policy decisions about public lands, but they will do it with less input from knowledgeable and experienced career professionals. </p>
<p>And by forcing government employees to either move to the West or find other jobs, moving the BLM headquarters will effectively gut its staff without running afoul of civil service protections. White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/08/05/usda-science-agencies-relocation-may-have-violated-law-inspector-general-report-says/">admitted as much</a> in an August 2019 speech:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“By simply saying to people, ‘You know what, we’re going to take you outside the bubble, outside the Beltway, outside this liberal haven of Washington, D.C., and move you out in the real part of the country,‘ and they quit — what a wonderful way to sort of streamline government.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mulvaney was describing a decision earlier in 2019 to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759053717/critics-of-relocating-usda-research-agencies-point-to-brain-drain">relocate two U.S Department of Agriculture research agencies</a> – the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture – from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City. More than 60% of affected staffers <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/usda-researchers-kansas-city-relocate/index.html">refused to relocate and quit</a>, leading to a loss of expertise for both organizations. </p>
<p>We expect BLM’s move and <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061714579">resulting staff losses</a> will similarly <a href="https://publicland.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Dismantling-BLM.pdf">diminish the agency’s capacity</a> to manage complex policy decisions. At the request of Democratic members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office is <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/bureau-of-land-management-decision-to-relocate-blms-headquarters-under-investigation">investigating</a> whether BLM has adequately justified moving its headquarters. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Buyers at the Outdoor Retailer & Snow Show Jan. 30, 2019, in Denver. The outdoor industry is a growing revenue source and pro-conservation voice in Western states.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Outdoor-Retailer-Show/fc7313feec5146218f1a32e3b549a482/18/0">AP Photo/David Zalubowski</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Diluting federal oversight of public lands</h2>
<p>President Trump’s public land policies align with coordinated challenges to federal authority, known as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Land-Western-Anger-Environmental/dp/0700608044">sagebrush rebellions</a>, that have been part of the American West for more than a century. Trump campaigned in 2016 on a platform that called for transferring control over public lands to the states. He later pardoned Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, whose conviction for committing arson on federal lands <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061792435">helped spark the 2016 armed occupation</a> of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.</p>
<p>Undermining the BLM’s professional capacity and returning public lands management to “home rule” fits naturally into this list. But we believe it is ultimately counterproductive. It will damage careers, impede democratic deliberation and undermine experienced oversight of public lands that belong to all Americans. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Freemuth receives funding from USGS. He is affiliated with the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, which receives funding from the BLM Office of Wildland Fire. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James R. Skillen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Do public lands in the West belong to Westerners, or all Americans? Moving a federal agency’s headquarters from Washington, DC to Colorado is the latest skirmish in a longtime struggle.John Freemuth, Cecil D. Andrus Endowed Chair for Environment and Public Lands and University Distinguished Professor, Boise State UniversityJames R. Skillen, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Calvin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1004382018-10-25T10:47:47Z2018-10-25T10:47:47ZCollaboration, not fighting, is what the rural West is really about<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241547/original/file-20181021-105767-1wnv6i4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Harney County, Ore., sign.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/2580127305/">Wikimedia/Ken Lund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dick Jenkins is a fourth-generation rancher living in Oregon’s most remote county. I wanted to know why he continues living in a rural community, even though life elsewhere might be easier.</p>
<p>“Taking care of [the land] is worth more than all the money in the world,” he told me. “Taking care of the animals, taking care of the environment, it all goes together and we’re very proud of it.”</p>
<p>While Dick’s answer was more evocative than I could’ve hoped for, I can’t say I was surprised by it. </p>
<p><a href="https://history.uoregon.edu/profile/sbeda/">I’m a historian who studies the rural Northwest</a>, and I’ve spent a fair amount of time talking with loggers, miners, fisherman and ranchers like Dick. </p>
<p>Each one of them, in their own way, articulates a similar sentiment: Whatever hardships contemporary rural life may pose – and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-america-is-the-new-inner-city-1495817008">there are many</a> – it’s their love of the land and desire to protect it that keeps them put.</p>
<p>This is not a description of rural life you typically hear.</p>
<p>Many stories about rural America, particularly during election cycles like we’re in now, portray rural communities as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/magazine/fear-of-the-federal-government-in-the-ranchlands-of-oregon.html">political monoliths</a> made up of nothing more than <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/1/5/10718128/federal-land-west-oregon-militia">angry ranchers</a> frustrated with the Bureau of Land Management, what’s commonly called “the BLM.” Or you see camouflage-clad <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/politics-anti-government-groups-in-the-west-right-now">militia members</a> hoping to overthrow the government.</p>
<p>These people do exist in rural communities. The <a href="https://www.politicalresearch.org/2016/10/03/oregon-three-percenters/">Three Percenters</a>, a heavily-armed militia whose members advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, has a sizable presence in Harney County, the same county Dick lives in. </p>
<p>And the <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/08/sheriff_glenn_palmer_makes_his.html">sheriff of Grant County</a>, just to the north, is a self-described “constitutional sheriff” who believes his power supersedes the federal government’s.</p>
<p>But for every AR-15 wielding militia member or rancher angrily shaking his fist at the BLM, there’s likely a dozen like Dick who want to find peaceful ways to protect their interests and the environment. </p>
<h2>Rebellion vs. collaboration</h2>
<p>The tone in recent news coverage of rural issues was largely set in the late 1970s, when ranchers started protesting new BLM limits on grazing in what became known as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1979/11/11/the-sagebrush-revolution/7ebf91e7-cbed-4bae-80c9-9a0cce5fe5d7/?utm_term=.c9c6ed3f7927">“Sagebrush Rebellion.”</a> These protests were sometimes <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/hcn-media/archive-pdf/1988_09_12_Wheeler.pdf">dramatic</a>, like when ranchers bulldozed road barriers that had been erected to limit access to wilderness areas. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sagebrush Rebellion made the cover of Newsweek in 1979.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://uni.edu/carrchl/wp/cv/the-sagebrush-rebellion/">Newsweek</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the origins of many present-day rural extremist movements can be traced back to frustrations with BLM policy in the 1970s, the Sagebrush Rebellion spawned another less talked-about movement: collaborative land management.</p>
<p>Many people recognized that fighting over wilderness, grazing rights, timber harvests and endangered species protections was getting them nowhere. </p>
<p>So in the 1990s, rural workers sat down with environmentalists, government agents and tribal representatives, and together they worked out agreements that would protect the land, preserve tribal resource rights and allow for continued grazing, mining and logging. </p>
<p>Rarely were these conversations easy. </p>
<p>One early collaborative effort, Northern California’s <a href="http://www.qlg.org/">Quincy Library Group</a>, was so named because members met in a setting that would force them to keep their voices – and tempers – in check.</p>
<p>But these difficult conversations bore results. </p>
<p>To name just two examples, <a href="https://www.blm.gov/get-involved/partnerships/featured-partners/idaho">ranchers and environmentalists in Idaho</a> have collectively used conservation funds to preserve agriculture and critical habitat along the Snake River. And in Dick Jenkins’ Harney County, ranchers, BLM agents, environmentalists and members of the Burns Paiute Tribe work together through the <a href="http://highdesertpartnership.org/">High Desert Partnership</a> to collectively manage the land.</p>
<p>As several scholars have <a href="http://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/sagebrush-collaboration">documented</a>, these collaborative partnerships are a source of local pride in many rural communities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forester Ed Murphy, a member of the Quincy Library Group, tells a House subcommittee about the group’s plan for balancing logging and environmental interests in Northern California forests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-California-Unite-/1ea3a6e587e6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/2/0">AP/Rich Pedroncelli</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Competing images</h2>
<p>So if many rural people are proud of their ability to collaborate, why are we seeing more anger and more high-profile protests directed at environmentalists and the federal government throughout the rural West, what some have called a <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-new-and-more-dangerous-sagebrush-rebellion">“second Sagebrush Rebellion”</a>? </p>
<p>The answer is that in recent years it’s mostly been newcomers or outsiders who’ve attempted to mobilize imagined rural anger in order to advance their own narrow political goals. </p>
<p>This was certainly the case during the highly publicized <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/series/burns-oregon-standoff-bundy-militia-news-updates/">takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge</a> in 2016. </p>
<p>Led by a group calling itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/04/us/oregon-wildlife-refuge-what-bundy-wants/index.html">the occupiers argued that</a> the Constitution did not give the federal government the right to own land. They hoped to turn BLM land over to local control and turn <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqL9NGRTGss">Harney County into the first “Constitutional county.”</a> </p>
<p>Of the roughly dozen occupiers who said they were fighting for the rights of Oregon ranchers, only one, <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/01/robert_lavoy_finicum_killed_in.html">Robert “LaVoy” Finicum</a>, was actually a rancher – from Arizona. The group’s leader, <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/oregon_militant_profiles_list.html">Ammon Bundy</a>, is the son of an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/us/politics/rancher-proudly-breaks-the-law-becoming-a-hero-in-the-west.html">infamous Nevada rancher</a>, but he worked as a car fleet manager prior to leading the standoff. And only one, Walter “Butch” Eaton, was from Oregon, and he stayed with the occupiers for just a half hour before deciding to <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/09/burns_man_who_rode_in_first_ca.html">walk home</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harney County billboard erected during the occupation of a local wildlife refuge by militia members.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Walker</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Their ‘own voice’</h2>
<p>These outsiders have been challenged by people in rural communities. </p>
<p>At least in Oregon, the <a href="http://www.rop.org/">Rural Organizing Project</a> has been at the forefront of efforts to help rural communities fight outside extremist groups.</p>
<p>Founded in the early 1990s to help people in rural communities organize against local anti-gay ordinances, the project has since grown into a <a href="http://www.rop.org/about-the-rural-organizing-project/our-history/">network of rural activists</a> who, according to the group’s website, “facilitate local organizing, communication and political analysis.” </p>
<p>When the paramilitary group <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/oath-keepers">the Oath Keepers</a> occupied the <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.2/showdown-at-sugar-pine-mine">Sugar Pine Mine</a> in Oregon’s Josephine County in April 2015, project activists and local community members quickly mobilized to communicate to both politicians and the media that the militia members did not have the support of the community. </p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.rop.org/up-in-arms/up-in-arms-section-iii/stories-from-the-field/">statement</a> released by the coalition, the Oath Keepers were “individuals from outside our community” there to “advance their own agenda.”</p>
<p>A year later, during the Malheur occupation, the project organized a day of action, coordinating rallies, meetings and press conferences in rural communities across Oregon to again clearly communicate to the media and decision-makers that a handful of armed protesters did not speak for most rural people.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://btimesherald.com/2016/02/10/new-harney-county-billboards-donated/">billboard</a> that Harney County residents put up during the 2016 occupation speaks volumes about the way many rural people feel about these outsiders. It read: “We Are HARNEY COUNTY. We Have OUR OWN VOICE.”</p>
<h2>A less divisive future</h2>
<p>To be perfectly clear, many ranchers, loggers and miners have problems with federal bureaucracies and environmental organizations. </p>
<p>Underfunded and overburdened by arcane rules, the BLM has a massive <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/backlog-grows-for-rangelands/">backlog of grazing permit applications</a>. Federal timber sales are <a href="http://www.capitalpress.com/Timber/20180523/environmental-groups-challenge-oregon-timber-sale-over-voles">routinely tied up in litigation</a>. </p>
<p>Many rural people are likewise troubled by the federal government’s <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11239.html">waning investment in rural economies</a> and rapidly <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/01/18/how-education-is-failing-rural-america.html">declining funding for rural education and social services</a>.</p>
<p>The journalists who report on the radical fringes of rural America are doing important work. Their stories shine light on dangerous political trends that, if allowed to grow in the shadows, might become something even more dangerous than they already are.</p>
<p>But ranchers like Dick Jenkins, groups like the Rural Organizing Project and other rural people committed to collaboration need to have their stories heard, too. </p>
<p>Paying as much attention to them as so-called Sagebrush Rebels just might show that while there are indeed many problems in rural America, most rural people are committed to bringing about a more amicable future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100438/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven C. Beda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rural Westerners have been stereotyped as angry ranchers who hate government. But for every gun-wielding militia member, there are many others who work collaboratively to protect what they value.Steven C. Beda, Assistant Professor, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/730322017-02-21T01:47:15Z2017-02-21T01:47:15ZIn latest skirmish of western land wars, Congress supports mining and ranching<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157398/original/image-20170218-10200-mocvun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sheep move through public lands near Shoshone, Idaho</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mypubliclands/30736733466/in/album-72157674657349752/">BLM/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Republicans in Congress are enthusiastically using the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/congressional-review-act-obama-regulations.html">Congressional Review Act</a> to overturn regulations finalized during the last weeks of the Obama administration. One measure on their list is the Bureau of Land Management’s new <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/planning2">Planning 2.0 rule</a>, which is designed to improve BLM’s process for making decisions about ranching, energy development and other uses of public lands. The House has already <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-joint-resolution/44">voted to repeal the rule</a>, and the Senate is likely to follow.</p>
<p>As an environmental historian, I see this as the latest skirmish in a long-running battle over use of the quarter-billion acres of public lands managed by BLM. </p>
<p>Historically, BLM has been dominated by commodity interests, especially ranchers and mining companies. But in the 1970s Congress passed several laws that increased public involvement in land management decisions. It also directed BLM to balance extractive uses such as mining, grazing and logging with other activities, such as wildlife conservation, recreation and preservation of wilderness areas. These laws shifted the agency into what has been called a “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/american-environmental-policy">green drift</a>” toward greater environmental protection, even in the face of subsequent congressional gridlock.</p>
<p>This is not a simple Washington-versus-local struggle. Many westerners, including some Republican officials, support the idea of opening up the planning process and doing it across larger areas. Overturning Planning 2.0 exposes BLM to charges of ignoring science, collaboration and the public – criticisms that it has worked for decades to overcome. And it will probably lead to more of the lawsuits that inspired the rule in the first place. </p>
<h2>The Bureau of Livestock and Mining</h2>
<p>BLM’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-twisted-roots-of-u-s-land-policy-in-the-west-52740">history</a> makes it vulnerable to charges of not listening to a wide public. An agency of the Interior Department, it was created in 1946 through a merger of the General Land Office and the U.S. Grazing Service. Government experts had found that 95 percent of rangelands in the public domain had declined since the turn of the century due to “<a href="https://archive.org/stream/westernrangelett00unitrich#page/n9/mode/2up">excessive stocking</a>,” or overgrazing. </p>
<p>However, BLM was so attentive to its main constituencies – ranchers and mineral companies – that it quickly became known as the Bureau of Livestock and Mining. In its early years, power rested almost entirely with grazing advisory boards, made up of local ranchers who assigned grazing permits on government rangelands. At one point these boards even helped pay BLM employee salaries. </p>
<p>Through the 1970s western land management was a classic example of what political scientists call an “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_triangle_(US_politics)">iron triangle</a>,” in which tightly connected congressional committees, bureaucracies and interest groups enact policy. Such relationships typically favor the narrow self-interest of commodity groups. </p>
<p>According to early studies of BLM, such as Philip Foss’ 1960 book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Grass-Administration-Grazing-Public/dp/0837121361">Politics and Grass</a>,” the agency was “captured” by livestock interests. Political scientist Grant McConnell <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Private-power-American-democracy-McConnell/dp/B0006BMZFG">observed</a> in 1966 that BLM’s decentralized structure was designed to allow “home rule on the range” – just what ranchers wanted.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157399/original/image-20170218-10195-19w4pxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157399/original/image-20170218-10195-19w4pxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157399/original/image-20170218-10195-19w4pxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157399/original/image-20170218-10195-19w4pxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157399/original/image-20170218-10195-19w4pxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157399/original/image-20170218-10195-19w4pxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157399/original/image-20170218-10195-19w4pxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lazy B Ranch near Duncan, Arizona in 1945. The ranch was the childhood home of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and is on an active grazing allotment managed by BLM.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mypubliclands/30181142305/in/album-72157671460858983/">BLM/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gradual opening</h2>
<p>In the 1970s BLM started to become more independent and manage land in a more <a href="http://www.oupress.com/ECommerce/Book/Detail/2046/the%20size%20of%20the%20risk">adaptive and balanced</a> way. This was partly due to the 1969 <a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/nepa69.pdf">National Environmental Policy Act</a>, which gave the public a new role in federal policy. Agencies proposing major projects were required to produce environmental impact statements that were subject to public review. This opened up federal agencies to greater scrutiny and allowed new voices to influence agency decisions. It also increased litigation and <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-1895-8.html">slowed down the planning process</a> as more constituencies became involved. </p>
<p>The 1976 <a href="https://www.blm.gov/or/regulations/files/FLPMA.pdf">Federal Land Policy and Management Act</a> increased BLM’s power to regulate grazing and mining, and made wilderness a new priority in its multiple-use portfolio. Ranching and mining interests now had to compete and cooperate with wildlife advocates and other nonextractive users. </p>
<p>These new policies improved BLM decisions by enabling the agency to consider science, such as rangeland ecology and habitat protection for endangered species, and the noneconomic values of wilderness and wildlife. They also disrupted power balances. Many western stakeholders felt that national priorities were displacing local needs and traditions. </p>
<p>Their dissatisfaction spawned the Sagebrush Rebellion of the late 1970s and early 1980s and its <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-points-to-more-dangerous-malheur-style-standoffs-68134">descendants</a>. Ever since then, commodity interests have bristled at having to incorporate broadly environmental values in western land use decisions, instead of basing them strictly on economics that favored ranchers with <a href="http://www.opb.org/news/series/burns-oregon-standoff-bundy-militia-news-updates/federal-grazing-fees/">below-market grazing fees</a> and miners with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/mining-firm-profits-from-public-lands-remain-a-mystery-new-gao-study-shows/2012/12/11/c3416110-43c1-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html?utm_term=.5e38a7338a8a">favorable leasing and royalty arrangements</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157397/original/image-20170218-10206-1di3h48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157397/original/image-20170218-10206-1di3h48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157397/original/image-20170218-10206-1di3h48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157397/original/image-20170218-10206-1di3h48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157397/original/image-20170218-10206-1di3h48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157397/original/image-20170218-10206-1di3h48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157397/original/image-20170218-10206-1di3h48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Humbug Spires, on BLM land south of Butte, Montana, is an 11,175-acre zone under study for possible designations as a wilderness area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mypubliclands/9469796516/in/album-72157673516560212/">Bob Wick, BLM California</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Planning 2.0 in the crosshairs</h2>
<p>The final <a href="https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/documents/files/PlanningandNepa_Planning_FinalPlanningRuleSigned.pdf">Planning 2.0 rule</a>, published on Dec. 16, 2016, is designed to fix some key flaws in western land use planning. Notably, BLM lands are intermingled with private lands and public lands managed by other federal agencies. Many issues, such as wildfire management and invasive species control, cross these boundaries. </p>
<p>Instead of planning at the local or site-specific scale, which does not address the environment’s interconnected nature, the rule directs BLM to plan at the landscape scale – that is, over large areas with “<a href="https://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/Landscape_Approach.html">similar environmental characteristics</a>,” such as the <a href="https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/province/coloplat.html">Colorado Plateau</a>. Landscape-scale planning necessarily involves federal, state, local and tribal governments.</p>
<p>The rule also requires BLM to seek public input before developing plans. This approach contrasts with NEPA, which requires agencies only to consult with the public <a href="http://www.lynnscarlett.com/uploads/2/7/9/5/2795360/nepa_policy_commentary--.pdf">after they have identified a few options for action</a>. Environmentalists have repeatedly stalled BLM land use planning through lawsuits when they disagreed with agencies’ proposed alternatives. Planning 2.0 seeks to involve them earlier to help develop alternatives in hope of reducing litigation later. </p>
<p>Many westerners who opposed the rule raised classic federal-versus-state arguments against it. Tom Jankovsky, a Republican commissioner in Garfield County, Colorado, <a href="http://www.postindependent.com/news/local/u-s-house-votes-to-kill-blms-planning-2-0/">called it</a> “the first step to a totalitarian government, having bureaucrat planners making legislation through administrative process.” The <a href="https://cdn.westernenergyalliance.org/sites/default/files/Western%20Energy%20Alliance%20Letter%20in%20Support%20of%20Planning%202.0%20CRA%20Resolution%201.26.17.pdf">Western Energy Alliance</a> complained that it was an “overreach of federal authority” beyond what FLPMA allowed and prioritized conservation over multiple use.</p>
<p>But other western stakeholders found merit in Planning 2.0. <a href="http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2017-02-13/public-lands-wilderness/sportsmen-stand-up-to-defend-blm-2-0/a56346-1">Hunters and anglers</a>, along with other <a href="http://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/articles/how-fishermen-hunters-bikers-and-hikers-are-about-to-lose-their-say-on-public-land-use-w466008">hikers and outdoor enthusiasts</a>, want seats at the table in land use decisions. Some wildlife advocates see the new rules as a great improvement and <a href="http://www.wyomingnews.com/opinion/andersen-congress-needs-to-pass-blm-planning-to-give-power/article_6440c5ee-f4dd-11e6-8671-dbe5095e6796.html">have called for Congress</a> to ratify Planning 2.0 rather than repeal it. Park County, Colorado’s three Republican commissioners <a href="https://wilderness.org/sites/default/files/Planning%202.0%20County%20letters%20of%20support.pdf">praised the rule</a> for allowing the public to influence plans rather than just react to them. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ifQpcrCzT0Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">BLM work to help protect threatened western snowy plovers in Oregon.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>One step forward, two steps back</h2>
<p>In my view, many critics who have urged Congress to strike down Planning 2.0 want to return to the era when mining companies and ranchers wrote the rules and did so for a narrow range of interests. This strategy is consistent with the Republican Party’s general <a href="https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL%5B1%5D-ben_1468872234.pdf">commitment to deregulation</a> to facilitate business. But repealing the rule is unlikely to have that effect. </p>
<p>Laws like NEPA and FLPMA have brought other interests to the planning table, and Planning 2.0 would get them there earlier to help prevent costly delays that frustrate everyone involved. By excluding their voices, Congress will guarantee the status quo: lengthy court battles after planning decisions are issued. And once a rule is vacated under the Congressional Review Act, agencies <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43992.pdf">cannot issue a new rule that is “substantially the same</a>” unless Congress passes a law authorizing them to do so. The result will be more gridlock and unsound multiple-use management of western public lands. </p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the number of acres of public lands managed by BLM.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam M. Sowards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Republicans in Congress are working to kill an Obama administration rule that broadens public input into federal land use planning. Hunters, fishermen, hikers and environmental groups are opposed.Adam M. Sowards, Professor of History, University of IdahoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.