Beyond some heated exchanges with critical Democrats, US Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke provided some glimpses at what he is finding as he pursues reorganizing the department he leads.
The effort is still in its early stages, he emphasized to the US Senate Energy and Resources Committee on Mar. 13 and the House Natural Resources Committee days later.
"We face a number of challenges," he told Sen. John A. Barrasso. "One of them is that we have multiple bureaus with different regions that are not based on ecosystems or watersheds. So structurally, it is very difficult for [agencies in] an old department like Interior to work together."
He used an example of a fish in a river that has a dam upstream and irrigation downstream.
"It's managed by the Commerce Department through the National Incident Management System and by Interior through the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
"Upstream, the Army Corps of Engineers generally manages the dam structures. Downstream, the irrigation is overseen by Interior's Bureau of Reclamation.
"On a US Forest Service holding the stream passes, the surface is managed by the Department of Agriculture while the subsurface is managed by the Bureau of Land Management at Interior," he explained.
"Same stream, same issues. But you can get multiple biological opinions produced independently with different results, some of which can't be reconciled," Zinke said.
"Let's talk about the reorganization," said Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.) when she was recognized. "I have spoken with you about the Duck Valley tribe whose reservation straddles the Nevada-Idaho border.
"Consequently, it's subject to BLM jurisdiction in both states. Yet what I'm looking at in Nevada would cut the state in half for your BLM regions. I don't understand that," she said.
Bringing agencies together
When Cortez-Masto asked Zinke to meet further with Nevada's governor and other stakeholders, the secretary immediately said he would.
"Right now, the focus is on keeping the BLM state directors because the states enjoy working with them," he said. "Our larger issue is trying to bring the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, and other bureaus at Interior together to make sure we're aligned in unified districts based on watersheds and science."
Zinke told Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who has introduced legislation to move BLM's headquarters, "On the reorganization, 16% of Interior's workforce is at retirement age today. In 5 years, it will be 40%. Looking at replacing these employees and pushing more assets out west, we want to give entry-level employees a chance to buy a house and send their children to good schools. Smaller communities are affordable. San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC, are very expensive cities."
About the Author
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.