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KUNC is among the founding partners of the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration of public media stations that serve the Western states of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

BLM Headquarters Moving To Colorado

Grand Junction, Colorado will be the new home of the BLM headquarters, according to Senator Cory Gardner, R-CO.
Courtesy Grand Junction Bureau of Land Management
Grand Junction, Colorado will be the new home of the BLM headquarters, according to Senator Cory Gardner, R-CO.

The Bureau of Land Management is officially relocating its headquarters to the Mountain West. That’s according to an announcement by Colorado Senator Cory Gardner.

 

The Republican senator says the BLM’s new headquarters will be Grand Junction in Western Colorado, and he is excited. 

Gardner and other proponents of the relocation have long said that it will help agency decision makers be closer to the actual land they manage.

"This means that people will be able to have greater say, greater impact on public lands that affect their community," Gardner said, in a video statement released Monday afternoon. 

Some conservationists were quick to criticize the move, saying the administration should be focused on critical infrastructure needs at parks and public lands. 

The BLM employs about 10,000 workers, but most of those workers are already stationed here in the West — like range conservationists, field biologists and firefighters who work on the ground. The headquarters move would likely affect about 4% of BLM employees who currently work in Washington D.C., many of whom are agency leaders and policy makers. 

In a statement Monday Colorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis said, “It’s hard to think of a better place to house the department responsible for overseeing our beloved public lands.” 

The BLM has not confirmed the move. The agency did not immediately respond a request for comment.  

 

Find reporter Amanda Peacher on Twitter  @amandapeacher .

Copyright 2019 Boise State Public Radio

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho,  KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC KUNR in Nevada and KUNC in Colorado.

 

Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.

Amanda Peacher is an Arthur F. Burns fellow reporting and producing in Berlin in 2013. Amanda is from Portland, Oregon, where she works as the public insight journalist for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She produces radio and online stories, data visualizations, multimedia projects, and facilitates community engagement opportunities for OPB's newsroom.
Amanda Peacher
Amanda Peacher works for the Mountain West News Bureau out of Boise State Public Radio. She's an Idaho native who returned home after a decade of living and reporting in Oregon. She's an award-winning reporter with a background in community engagement and investigative journalism.
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