Vermillion Cliffs National Monument in Northern Arizona. /Photo by Bureau of Land Management / Flickr/CC BY 2.0
By Jacob Fischler | Arizona Mirror
President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Bureau of Land Management has supported mining near the Grand Canyon, livestock grazing in federally protected areas, resource extraction at national monuments and generally opposed federal management of Western lands — all positions conservationists in Arizona say would hurt the state’s public lands.
William Perry Pendley’s long record as an attorney and advocate before he joined the BLM as a deputy director last July raises serious concerns, members of Arizona’s conservation community say. He represented miners in an Obama-era lawsuit challenging a federal prohibition on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, wrote in favor of allowing oil and gas extraction on national monuments and has advocated for divesting federal public lands that are popular recreation sites in the state.
“He doesn’t believe in public lands,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “Having a person manage a public resource who doesn’t even believe in it is really pretty outrageous.”
