Less than three years after its tumultuous move to Grand Junction, Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently announced it plans to move its headquarters back to Washington D.C.
In 2019, then-president Donald Trump moved the agency’s headquarters in an effort to give field-level personnel more responbility and authority, reduce costs, and “provide an increased presence closer to the resources the BLM staff manages,” a Trump-era official wrote to a lawmaker, according to The Washington Post. More than 87% of employees affected by the move, nearly 300 people, according to PBS, either resigned or retired.
“The Bureau of Land Management is critical to the nation’s efforts to address the climate crisis, expand public access to our public lands, and preserve our nation’s shared outdoor heritage. It is imperative that the bureau have the appropriate structure and resources to serve the American public,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a press release. “There’s no doubt that the BLM should have a leadership presence in Washington, D.C. – like all the other land management agencies – to ensure that it has access to the policy-, budget-, and decision-making levers to best carry out its mission. In addition, the BLM’s robust presence in Colorado and across the West will continue to grow.”
While the agency is moving its main branch back to the nation’s capital, it will keep the Grand Junction branch as its official Western headquarters. Some state and local politicians were disappointed with BLM reducing its presence in Colorado, but were content there will be some BLM representation in the state, according to The Denver Post.
“It’s your typical cycle of a courtship. High excitement at the beginning. Then we go into the lull period. Then there’s the breakup. There’s some sadness. But we are looking to the next relationship,” said Dian Schwenke president of the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce.
Department personnel plan to take a number of steps, in coordination with leaders in Congress, to ensure that the BLM is best positioned to serve the American public, officials said in the press release. This includes strengthening the government-to-government relationship with Indian Tribes by supporting tribal liaisons in each state and improve coordination and capacity to implement clean energy projects.
