BLM is looking to relocate HQ

Agency wants to move to the Western U.S., but it hasn’t chosen a location.

The Bureau of Land Management is looking to move closer to hiking trails, rivers, forests and fishing streams.

Department of the Interior senior adviser Susan Combs told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the agency “absolutely” plans to relocate BLM’s headquarters to the Western U.S.

“The secretary has made it clear that he does want to move BLM’s headquarters west,” Combs said. “No location has been picked, but that is something we would expect to take a look at in the next six months or so.”

The BLM manages nearly 400,000 square miles of public land, and almost all of it — 99 percent — is in 12 Western states.

“This would ensure that decisions would be made by those who understand the land best, resulting in more effective land management programs and policies,” said Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez.

Moving the BLM has been a goal for Tipton and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado.

In May 2017, Gardner joined with senators from Utah, Nevada, Alaska and Montana to introduce a bill that would authorize the BLM’s move from Washington to a Western state.

“Making this agency more accountable to the people who have to deal with its management decisions by putting its headquarters among the land it manages would be a great start to modernizing for the next 100 years,” Gardner said.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is a Westerner. He’s a former U.S. representative from Montana who notably rode a horse to his first day of work in Washington.

It’s not just Republicans pushing the move.

“We look forward to working closely with the department as it conducts its evaluation,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado. “And we re-extend our invitation to Secretary Zinke to visit Colorado to see for himself why there is no better home for the BLM headquarters.”

Western Slope cities such as Grand Junction and Montrose have expressed an interest in being the new home of the BLM.

The agency would potentially bring 600 employees with its new headquarters.

The move is part of Zinke’s plan to divide his department’s regions along river systems and other natural features instead of state borders, and using them to restructure oversight. The agency has about 9,000 employees, with fewer than 400 in Washington. The rest are scattered among 140 state, district or field offices including Lakewood.

Environmental groups that have often clashed with Zinke have expressed skepticism about the idea of moving the headquarters, arguing that it is a distraction and a waste of money.