{"id":4264,"date":"2017-04-13T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T18:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/?p=4264"},"modified":"2024-09-23T22:48:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T04:48:00","slug":"move-west-improve-blm-accountability-put-fox-hen-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/move-west-improve-blm-accountability-put-fox-hen-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Would move west improve BLM accountability, or put the fox in the hen house?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2014 Published with Permission of Free Range Report \u2014<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

All this make it worth pondering the question of whether BLM HQ should be moved to rural Western Colorado\u2013which, by the way, has been economically harmed because of anti-fossil fuel BLM regulations, and its heavy-handed interference with ranching, farming, and other resource-based industries. Will moving the less-than-popular Bureau of Land Management’s national operations to the rural West be the equivalent of housing the proverbial fox inside the hen house?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday, April 8th<\/sup>, United States Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma, CO) floated the idea, before an audience of county officials and leaders from 20 Western Colorado counties, of moving the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) headquarters from D.C. to the rural West. More specifically, Senator Gardner proposed Grand Junction, Colorado, the largest town on Colorado’s West Slope, and the biggest berg between Denver and Salt Lake City, Utah, as a potential base for the BLM and its army of bureaucrats. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel\u00a0reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The idea of moving the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management to Grand Junction drew applause Saturday from a Club 20 audience.<\/p>\n

“U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-CO., said the secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, was “very interested” in the idea, though Gardner commented that Zinke might want to move the agency to Montana, Zinke’s home state.<\/p>\n

“Gardner is crafting a bill that calls for the agency to move west to a location with access by air and highway, and in and among the lands administered by the bureau.<\/p>\n

“Grand Junction, though, isn’t called out specifically in the bill so far, only by its specifications, including its central location.<\/p>\n

“If not executed carefully, the idea could be appropriated by legislators from Utah, Wyoming or another Western state.<\/p>\n

“Gardner and U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-CO, addressed about 100 people at Two Rivers Convention Center during the spring meeting for the Western Slope lobbying and promotional organization.<\/p>\n

“Most bureau employees will be unaffected because about 600 of the bureau’s 3,000 employees work at the agency office in Washington, D.C., Gardner noted.<\/p>\n

There may be a sense of poetic justice in moving BLM headquarters from its artificial, urban D.C. environs to the outback of the Great Basin, especially when considering the fact that the federal death-grip on public lands begins roughly 100 miles east of Grand Junction, at the Continental Divide.<\/p>\n

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But perspective is necessary, and people outside the areas in red should understand that ‘BLM’ is as much a hiss and byword as any federal agency could be. Although rangers in some local offices are reasonably cooperative and understanding in their dealings with local governments and property owners, the agency is as unpopular\u2013and unfortunately as feared\u2013as the EPA was under Obama. With a history of arbitrary road closures on public lands, clashes with locals, and power-crazed agents literally bullying law-abiding\u00a0citizens to death<\/a>, many in the West would rather see the BLM headquartered in Antarctica, than anywhere close to them.<\/p>\n

Consider the following:<\/p>\n