Bureau of Land Management veteran Jamie Connell, currently Director of the BLM’s Montana/Dakotas State Office, has been named the new Director of the BLM’s Oregon/Washington State Office based in Portland, Oregon.
BLM Director Neil Kornze, who announced the appointment today, noted that “Jamie brings extensive experience and a depth of natural resource knowledge with her to her new post. She understands the challenges of public land management at a time when the American people recognize the scenic, recreational, and economic values of these lands as never before."
Connell, a 31-year BLM veteran, has served since October 2010 as head of the BLM Montana/Dakotas State Office, based in Billings, Montana. In her new capacity, Connell will oversee more than 16 million acres of public land in Oregon and Washington that comprise a mix of heavily forested lands west of the Cascades and the dry, sagebrush ecosystems of the Great Basin. These BLM-managed lands support diverse uses, resources, and values, including recreation, wilderness, wildlife, timber harvesting, livestock grazing, wild horses and burros, and mineral extraction.
Connell, a native of Butte, Montana, received her B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Montana Tech in 1985, when she began her BLM career as a petroleum engineer in Miles City, Montana. Connell’s managerial experience includes stints for the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service in locations across the West, including Great Falls and Malta, Montana; Boise, Idaho; and the cities of Montrose, Silverthorne, Glenwood Springs, and Grand Junction, all in Colorado.
Connell and her husband John enjoy hiking, skiing, canoeing, upland bird hunting, and fly fishing.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
