Idahoans care deeply about our public lands, from hunting and fishing to grazing to simply having wide open spaces to explore.
A huge portion of the land in this state is managed by the federal government, including millions of acres overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, the agency responsible for managing about 245 million acres of public land across the country.
So when there’s a nomination to lead that agency, it can get a lot of attention here at home.
Last week, Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) voted in committee to advance the nomination of former New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce to become director of the BLM. The nomination moved forward out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on an 11–9 vote.
What's notable is that Sen. Risch has been very clear about how important public lands are to Idahoans. In fact, during the hearing, he told Pearce: "In all my decades of serving the state, I have never received such passionate, unified messages as I have on this particular topic. Idahoans do not want their public lands sold. Period. Full stop.”
But some conservation groups say they’re concerned about Pearce's past statements supporting the sale or transfer of some federal lands and his ties to the oil and gas industry.
We did reach out to Risch's office for comment. They told us he wasn’t available for an interview and directed us to his comments from the committee hearing.
To help us understand what this nomination could mean and why it’s become such a point of debate, Alexis Pickering, executive director of Conservation Voters for Idaho, sat down with Idaho Matters.
