Pendley to be nominated to head BLM

[Sytes]

A good discussion w/ various HT Members supportive and a couple not as supportive when Zinke announced the HQ move out west.

Zinke intends to move BLM HQ, etc

https://gazette.com/news/interior-secretary-ryan-zinke-cites-colorado-s-advantages-in-blm/article_65f600b8-975f-11e8-9af4-a393f5666461.html Seems a pretty good idea to bring HQ for BLM among other aspects to the West. Employ people within the environment and possibly a better perspective over...

www.hunttalk.com

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Several aspects of Mountain States Legal Foundation I appreciate. It presents conservative values for forestry, etc. One area I do not value is based on Pendley's opinion while President of the Foundation,
"Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold."

I believe the BLM should be more proactive in multi use mission statement from mineral extraction, renewable resources, public enjoyment. etc. I'm a firm believer that our land remains federal though also firmly believe in State Stewardship.

I don't believe Pendley is the right person for the job. I'd support a conservative person interested in the multi functional intent of BLM w/o deliberate outspoken view's that conflict with the objective to manage our BLM Federal lands. There are others to nominate;

 

[Losing_Sanity]

A good discussion w/ various HT Members supportive and a couple not as supportive when Zinke announced the HQ move out west.

Zinke intends to move BLM HQ, etc

https://gazette.com/news/interior-secretary-ryan-zinke-cites-colorado-s-advantages-in-blm/article_65f600b8-975f-11e8-9af4-a393f5666461.html Seems a pretty good idea to bring HQ for BLM among other aspects to the West. Employ people within the environment and possibly a better perspective over...

www.hunttalk.com

****************************

Several aspects of Mountain States Legal Foundation I appreciate. It presents conservative values for forestry, etc. One area I do not value is based on Pendley's opinion while President of the Foundation,
"Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold."

I believe the BLM should be more proactive in multi use mission statement from mineral extraction, renewable resources, public enjoyment. etc. I'm a firm believer that our land remains federal though also firmly believe in State Stewardship.

I don't believe Pendley is the right person for the job. I'd support a conservative person interested in the multi functional intent of BLM w/o deliberate outspoken view's that conflict with the objective to manage our BLM Federal lands. There are others to nominate;

Well put... Pendley may not be the right person for the job, but as stated before, I don't see anything yet that would make me take a hard pass. But you make a good argument.

 

[BigHornRam]

It really don't matter. Anyone that is appointed will be wrong in many cases just because it is President Trump doing the appointing. Never going to make everyone happy.

I know. They all showed their cards when they said this appointment would not mater in January. It was worth asking though. I'm going to call my Senators Monday and ask them both to support the nomination. We will see what happens.

 

[Big Fin]

BLM is adding acreage around here, not selling it off. Dont know what you are so fearful of.

Missoula BLM adds nearly 5k acres in Lower Blackfoot River drainage | Bureau of Land Management

www.blm.gov

I'm for multiple use of our BLM land. That includes grazing, mining, oil and gas extraction, timber harvesting, hunting, wilderness, ect. What are you looking for from a BLM director that meets your qualifications?

I'm glad you selected that one as the example to somehow support what Pendley is doing.

Let's not put our shoulders out of joint thanking Pendley and Pals for this Lower Blackfoot acquisition. He had nothing to do with it; zero, zilch, other than making sure the press release made it sound like he did something. He had as much to do with this as Al Gore had to do with inventing the internet. The DC powerstrokers are good at taking credit for things they had nothing to do with.

I think BHR knows how this deal came down. For those not nearby or not involved in these transactions, here is how this one happened.

TNC, The Nature Conservancy, bought these lands from Plum Creek over the years. We tried to get Congress to appropriate funds to buy those Plumb Creek lands, so TNC wouldn't have to. But, Pendley, when at Mountain States Legal Foundation, and his Pals at other entities, killed any chance of that with their backdoor lobbying and threats against those who were afraid of them.

Thankfully, TNC has/had the capital and clout to get it done. TNC acquired the lands and has held them ever since, offering to transfer much of them to the US Government if ever LWCF funding could complete a transaction.

This 5,500 acres was bought from TNC with the use of Land and Water Conservation Funds (LWCF). LWCF is a program Pendley has hated his entire career prior to becoming the lead vandal inside the BLM. He did nothing to coordinate this current LWCF funding appropriation that allowed this to happen, rather he and his fellow anti-public landers within the current Administration prefer to zero out money for LWCF.

The appropriation that made this possible happened because Senator Tester and Senator Daines of Montana sit on the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. When the House approved $535+ million, many in the Senate wanted to follow the President's idea to zero out the LWCF appropriations. The Senate appropriated $465 million (including funds for this MT project), in spite of the Administration, of which Pendley is one of the leaders for public land policy, wanting to zero it out.

Thanks to the House and Senate leaving some of that LWCF funding in the budget, the appropriations were available to make this transaction happen. The BLM did not buy it. The BLM was merely selected to be the holding agency for the land, the same as the other 25,000+ acres TNC has transferred to the BLM in this same general area.

Summary being - If Pendley and the Administration had their way, this would not have happened. There would have been no LWCF funds to make it happen. It happened because of TNC buying it back when Plumb Creek sold it and because the House and the Senate overruled the Administration's funding priorities. That is fact. Inconvenient facts not mentioned in the BLM press release linked above.

Here is commentary. Take it for what you want. The press release came from the BLM and is issued with approval by Pendley, as he is acting Deputy Director. He is going to make sure it makes him look like the hero, all the while he is serving as the conduit to his anti-public land friends to pressure the Administration and many Senators to zero out the programs like LWCF that make this happen. He needs all the veneer he can spin to try deflect what he is doing behind the scenes and what his intentions are. When a chance arises to take credit for something positive, he nearly breaks a leg getting to the podium to congratulate himself.

Most every land transaction the BLM has done, or will do, in the current fiscal year that ends September 30, will follow this exact pattern. I won't go through every transaction Pendley takes credit for, just know they all follow this same bullshit path of taking credit for doing nothing.

Don't expect any BLM press releases to give anything more that a high gloss finish to a story. Don't expect anything to come out of Department of Interior that is complete enough to put the pieces together as is stated above. Pendley and Pals won't let that happen. Warning to all - when Pendley and his ilk can take credit for something that looks good to the public, don't get between them and the mic, or you might get trampled.

I've been in this game for 25 years, as have many others. The new media spinners Pendley has brought to DOI/BLM can spit shine the bullshit all they want, but they won't convince me and most others that the current BLM leadership had anything to do with this excellent accomplishment. If they were serious about these kind of projects, Pendley and friends would not have been lobbying against the Blackfoot Clearwater Project and killing every version of that bill that came to a committee in Congress.

Pendley and his pals have made their living getting paid to peddle influence that is against the interest of public land hunters, any public land user for that matter. Now, through their connections with those holding the levers of power, they get to take credit for anything good and disguise the things they are doing at breakneck speed to cause lasting impairment to BLM lands and the agency as a whole.

For "Pendley and Pals" to take credit for anything such as this Lower Blackfoot, or any acquisition, is a joke. It is a kick in the crotch to TNC and the many locals who have spent years working on these projects. We all benefit from this project getting done.

Let's give credit to those who did the heavy lifting, not Pendley and Pals who are at DOI/BLM looting and vandalizing the agency while they can.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Who would you like to see Trump appoint then.

 

[noharleyyet]

Appointees....the trick is useful facilitation. The opponent must remove or neutralize it's effectiveness.

 

[kansasdad]

^^^^
Perhaps not confirmable.........anyone who can’t stoop to parsing out the topic at hand to make most in the room believe he is on “their side” even though he isn’t will have a hard time surviving and being elected.

 

[JLS]

It’s hard for me to comprehend how some folks avoid facts and then blame others for partisan bias.

Thank you Randy for laying out the details.

 

[SAJ-99]

View attachment 144951

Like most people with a conscience, I doubt this guy would serve.

 

[shoots-straight]

You reap what you sow. As other have pointed out, land acquisitions take a lot of time to put together.

I predict that we will have a 4 year gap (at a minimum) on any new acquisitions taking place (for recreation, wildlife, or other public interest reasons), at least those brought forward by this administration, other than boarder wall land grabs.

This loss of time will not show up but it still is a loss just by his involvement in the agency. We don't know today, what work he has accomplished for his buddies. Time will tell and I'm certain it's not good.

Paul I"m glad you found a man you believe in from this administration. I'm 180 degrees in the opposite direction but that's nothing new.

 

[44hunter45]

I wrote Crapo and Risch when WPP was named interim. They both replied with a version of the Mike Lee script. "Blah, Blah, Taxpayers, Blah Blah, Poorly Managed, Blah, Blah, Maintenance Backlog, etc."
De-fund, De-cry, Di-vest.

 

[44hunter45]

Well, I'm old enough remember James Watt. He was lucky not to end up in jail in the 1980's. WPP was his underling and was lucky not to end up in jail as well.

This article is from a 2012 energy industry trade publication. Hardly green propaganda.

PRB Coal Leasing Scandal Redux

PRB Coal Leasing Scandal Redux

www.powermag.com

 

[MO Betta]

It's difficult to foresee a good outcome if Pendley survives the nomination process and continues to head the BLM. One of the most worrisome (to me, at least) appointments Trump has made.

It is interesting that TNC was the catalyst on that project, as @Big Fin pointed out. I didnt know much about them until I was looking up the history of a state park I've been going to since I was little (Prarie State Park), and found that the park was created with their help purchasing the land. I then started looking further and they have done a LOT of really cool conservation work all over. Sorry to sidetrack on that, I just don't see them mentioned much - they just kind of fly under the radar doing some good work.

 

[Gerald Martin]

All I know is that back when my wife raised chickens they weren't all that efficient and wasted some feed as they produced their eggs for the family. Wise man that I was, I promoted my pet fox to be in charge of managing the chickens and getting their frivolous and wasteful eating habits under control. He had to get a couple other of his fox buddies to help out but I am proud to annouce that we don't have any more wasted food at the chicken house. We don't get any eggs anymore either but that's not a big deal. Actually, we don't have any chickens anymore come to think about it? I wonder how that happened? STUPID CHICKENS! I should have known they would be so irresponsible as to get eaten.

 

[Trial153]

Nominating someone that is the antithesis of what the organizations mission is conveys a clear message. By doing so your lending credence to his past postitions on the subject by endorsing his seat at the head of the table.
Sportsmen and women need to think about that when their conservation and hunting Organizations bring Jr up on the stage and letting him talk out of both sides of his mouth saying that this administration is pro public lands.

 

[BigHornRam]

BLM is purchasing land in the Blackfoot and Pendely is on board with it. Don't need to give him credit for it, just acknowledge that this is a positive move, and the sky is not falling.

BLM buys more land near Blackfoot River

The Bureau of Land Management closed on a $5.6 million property purchase Thursday that adds 7,268 acres to public lands just north of the Blackfoot River.

missoulian.com

Back in 1986, the BLM managed a whopping 40 acres in that area,” Ashor told the Missoulian on Thursday. “Fast forward four or five years, and that 40 might be upward of 60,000 acres.”
Download PDF
The purchase comes at a time when federal land managers under the Trump Administration are being accused of wanting to sell off public property, and Ashor said he hopes this will calm some of those fears. In a news release, William Perry Pendley, the BLM deputy director for Programs and Policy, confirmed the support. Pendley previously supported the sale of public lands, but after he was appointed to head the BLM he said he disavowed his past views.

 

[406dn]

Pendley previously supported the sale of public lands, but after he was appointed to head the BLM he said he disavowed his past views.

How convenient.

I am hardly convinced.

 

[BigHornRam]

How convenient.

I am hardly convinced.

I wouldn't expect you to be.

 

[BrentD]

How convenient.

I am hardly convinced.

A case of, "If you can't beat it, join it" (and try to take credit for it).

 

[BuzzH]

I smell rags burning...Pendley's pants on fire most likely:

"Pendley previously supported the sale of public lands, but after he was appointed to head the BLM he said he disavowed his past views."

Yeah, just did a 180 because he was appointed to the BLM...bullshit defined.

He hasn't disavowed anything, he's looking for a second term for the current administration so his true colors can once again shine...and public lands will take it in the teeth.

BHR has to be the most gullible person on planet earth...