Western lands: Obama should pick Hahn for BLM

BLM needs better direction, just as scenic and fragile Glade Run NM needs more conservation, not more ORVs.

TUCSON -- The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing a 38-mile long off-road vehicle course on your public lands in the Glade Run area near Farmington, New Mexico, in the four corners region.

BLM has mis-managed and off-roaders have abused this area in recent years. Expanding often reckless off-roading there does not make sense, especially since BLM will not fully manage, monitor or enforce the rules.

This bad idea from New Mexico BLM is a sign that needed changes away from 'wreck'reation have not yet come to BLM in the Obama administration. Hopefully they will, and soon.

To help bring the change we voted for, Obama and his Interior Sec. Ken Salazar should name Martha Hahn soon as the next BLM Director.

Martha Hahn has more than 25 years of experience in both the BLM and Park Service. In 2002, at the behest of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), she was removed as the BLM Idaho State Director by corrupted Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles in connection with reforms she had instituted. Today, she is Division Chief for Science and Resource Management at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

BLM controls natural resources on 258M acres, as well as 700M acres of subsurface mineral estate, totaling more than any other US land agency. BLM public lands make up about 13% of the total land surface of the US and more than 40% of all land managed by the feds.

UPDATE, 2/28: Tell BLM no more destructive desert off-road racing.