I remember the magic of watching my kids catch their first fish and frogs, polar plunge in a half-frozen lake, paddle a river and harvest their first elk. These are moments no parent can ever forget. And every single one of them happened on Montana public lands.
However, in yet another egregious affront to our cherished public lands, President Donald Trump has nominated Steve Pearce to head the 245 million acres held by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Pearce’s political career has been defined by an extreme hostility towards public lands ownership. He’s gone so far as to say Teddy Roosevelt was wrong to create National Forests and National Parks, and that those lands should be turned over to states and/or be sold off entirely.
Ummmm, what?!
During his tenure on the House Natural Resources Committee, the agency tasked with overseeing the oil and gas industry, Pearce was making seven figures a year from the same industry he was writing laws for. Ouch, that doesn’t feel like it has the American peoples’ best interest at heart.
Steve Pearce has voted time and again against the Land and Water Conservation Fund, America’s most effective program for parks, trails, and working lands. LWCF has benefited almost every single American, conserving access for hunting and fishing, building new parks, swimming pools and ballfields.
In addition, in 2016 he co-sponsored the HEARD Act, which would have forced federal agencies to identify land to sell off for deficit reduction. In 2012, Pearce co-signed a letter to then Speaker Boehner which urged public lands sell-offs and expanded drilling as a supposed deficit-reduction measure.
Because of his radical views, voters have repeatedly rejected Steve Pearce as too extreme for New Mexico. He was rejected by New Mexico voters in 2008 for U.S. Senate; he was rejected by New Mexico voters in 2018 for New Mexico governor.
Pearce’s record makes clear what he believes in: advancing the sell-off and privatization of America’s public lands. The BLM Director is charged with stewarding our public lands for the benefit of all Americans. The 245 million acres of land currently held by the BLM belongs to all of us, and once it’s sold we will never get it back.
I’m not the only one that’s raised my kids to love the outdoors, we all do because that’s what we love most about being Montanans. Access to our public lands is intrinsically tied to our quality of life. Any Montanan who hunts or fishes, hikes or camps, or just values the existence of public lands, should oppose Steve Pearce as Director at the Bureau of Land Management.
Keagan Zoellner is the Montana state director of Mountain Mamas.