Is the Bureau of Land Management under the Biden administration and new Interior Secretary Deb Haaland considering sending the BLM headquarters back to Washington, DC?
Reports indicate the BLM has started a survey of its employees how to revamp the headquarters to improve operations. E & E News said the intent is to improve the bureau’s “function” after the offices were moved by the Trump administration from D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado.
An earlier survey, according to a report by the Missoula Current in Montana in March indicated BLM employees felt there had been abuse during the four years of the Trump Administration.
The Missoula Current stated that the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility released the survey results showing “the past four years of large policy changes—left the Bureau of Land Management almost unable to do its job.”
The survey was of 23 BLM employees in 9 states during January and February. Most indicated the agency had been headed in the wrong direction.
When the BLM moved headquarters to western Colorado, only 41 of 328 employees moved to Grand Junction and kept their positions.
Former Wyoming BLM state director Mary Jo Rugwell was quoted in March as stating the BLM’s national office should return to D.C.
“The move to Grand Junction was a thinly-veiled effort to gut the organization.”