Have you ever visualized yourself leaving a job in Jerry Maguire fashion? A noble memo and an articulate speech (que the inspirational music)?
That’s how Stan Olmstead departed the Bureau of Land Management.
EDITOR’S NOTE: There was no inspirational music—but there should have been.
In his letter to all BLM employees in Utah, Olmstead aired his grievances about improper public land management, self-serving bureaucracies, and the failure of his local agency to protect the environment.
He wrote:
The Vernal Office has placed priority on the exploitation of public land for commodities. The effort is because of a focus on development of energy; due to a fossil fuel fixation, politics, Energy Policy Act (2005), Vernal Field Office RMP (2008), and office managers that do not understand their purpose.
Olmstead argued that rather than “wisely manage” Utah’s public lands to keep them intact for future generations, the BLM has spent its time promoting energy development at the whims of certain employees.
As civil servants, we are obligated to all Americans to perform the BLM mission. Yet our elected, appointed and agency administrators ask us to focus on commodities and economies as opposed to environmental health.
Due to unchecked oil and gas drilling, Olmstead claims the desire for profit has exceeded the need to protect. He cites Utah’s loss of the only mountain plover population in the state—while the entire species is in decline—as one example of the BLM failing to adequately balance resource development and conservation.
The U.S. has lost numerous species and yet we do not act for their ethical protection and subsequently in defense of our own healthy environment. At the Vernal Office little concern has been shown to care for sensitive species.
In his encouragement for a better balance at the BLM, Olmstead argues that some BLM employees join the agency for the wrong reason. Olmstead, a 20-year employee of the Vernal BLM, has held the interest of the land and his duty to conserve it as his priorities, while others:
have said incorrectly that ‘their job was to promote oil & gas’ they fail in the mission and service to the people.
Moreover, Olmstead’s scathing review of BLM’s Vernal office indicates that this divide in purpose among employees results in a disjointed team. This leaves the current system open to exploitation of natural resources rather than a department working together for healthier public lands.
Yet the Vernal Office does not work together as a professional team, instead the office works as fragmented groups, individually following bureaucratic requirements catering to the exploiter and political antagonist. There is little thought for the future by those in charge for real land health.
Without thought for the future of our public lands, we run the risk of losing them altogether. While the BLM is home to people who care deeply about protecting public lands, some have priorities that are beginning to edge out the agency’s duty to sustain the health of the lands owned by all Americans to ensure our children have spaces unadulterated by oil and gas development. Olmstead says it’s time to “be honest about what is happening,” and with that acknowledgement comes the first step to stronger policies to protect our public lands.
Former BLM Chief Bob Abbey has faith that despite the emphasis put on oil and gas leasing, BLM employees will return to a focus on public lands:
During the two terms of President George W. Bush, the emphasis was oil and gas leasing and production. No doubt about that. So the employees adapted. Under President Obama and Secretary Salazar, (BLM employees) are meeting the expectations of today’s administration. Does that mean that it takes some employees a little longer time to transition than others? Yeah, they’re human beings. But one of the strengths of the BLM is its employees. They are some of the most dedicated public servants that you find anywhere.