When asked by a group of senators this week if he’s changed his well-documented support for selling off America’s public lands, Steve Pearce, the nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management said, “I’m not so sure I’ve changed.”
Next week the Senate will hold a confirmation vote on someone who wants to get rid of public land, to lead the agency tasked with stewarding some of our nation’s most visited and popular public lands. Call me crazy, but that sounds like a very bad idea. Given his anti-public lands track record, Pearce simply cannot be trusted to responsibly manage more than 245 million acres of America’s outdoor heritage. These lands provide clean drinking water to millions, pump billions of dollars into local economies, and offer wide-open spaces for hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing.
Public lands have faced repeated attacks over the past year, and each time Americans have united to voice their support for keeping public lands public. Pearce’s track record as a congressman includes seven attempts to sell off public lands. That’s seven times too many. He has also voted against popular programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides resources for everything from city parks and trails to big game habitat conservation. If public lands are sold to private interests, we will be locked out forever from accessing our favorite outdoor destinations, losing cherished family traditions of coming together in the great outdoors to hike, camp, fish, and hunt. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
Pearce also has deep ties to – and even investments in – oil and gas drilling companies, which don’t sit well with Westerners. In a recent survey, 77 percent of Idahoans and 80 percent of Montanans said these connections are an inappropriate conflict of interest. The surveys also found that 87 percent of Idahoans and 90 percent of Montanans are concerned about the impact of Pearce’s confirmation on access to public land for uses like livestock grazing, hunting, and fishing.
Pearce has gone so far as to publicly criticize American conservation hero President Theodore Roosevelt for making popular “big ideas of big forests and big national parks.” Pardon me, but most of us believe these big forests and national parks are what make America great.
When given the chance during his Feb. 25 Senate hearing to say unequivocally that public lands must remain public, Pearce deferred. Instead, he reiterated that he has not changed his mind over a letter he co-signed urging public land sales to reduce the federal deficit. In it, the co-signers wrote, “over 90 percent of [federal public] land is located in the Western states and most of it we do not even need.”
Now, we look to our senators in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to stand with their constituents who rely on the nearly 39 million acres of BLM lands in the three states and vote no on Steve Pearce’s nomination to lead the BLM.
Senators are expected to vote as soon as March 4. Hop on the phone or write an email via greateryellowstone.org, tell your senators to vote no on Steve Pearce for BLM Director – our public lands are too important to put in the hands of someone who instead of championing them, wants to get rid of them.
Scott Christensen is the executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.