National

 

HUD political appointee abruptly moved to lead Interior’s watchdog office amid ongoing investigations into Zinke. “The Trump administration has abruptly moved a political appointee from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to serve as the acting watchdog for the Interior Department, an unusual choice for a role that is traditionally nonpartisan. As acting inspector general at the Interior Department, Suzanne Israel Tufts will oversee four ongoing investigations into Secretary Ryan Zinke’s conduct, including inquiries into his wife’s travel and a Montana land development deal backed by the chairman of the oil services firm Halliburton.” [Washington Post, 10/16/18 (=)]

Ryan Zinke Has Fired the DOI Inspector General. “At last count, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was the subject of 14 separate government investigations. (A new record!) But that number could soon be zero. That’s because Zinke just fired the Department of the Interior’s acting inspector general.  The news doesn’t stop there. Not only did Mary Kendall, the acting inspector general, not learn she was being replaced until The Hill broke the news this morning, but her replacement will likely be able to fill the role without needing to go through Senate confirmation. ” [Outside Online, 10/16/18 (+)]

 

Top House Armed Services Dem says Trump coal export plan could hurt military. “House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash), on Tuesday, blasted President Trump's proposal to use military bases to export coal from the West Coast to Asia, saying it could hurt military readiness.  ‘This is a clear attempt to circumvent environmental oversight and protection,’ Smith said in a statement. ‘The Trump Administration is once again using national security as an excuse to drive their short-sighted agenda.’ Turning U.S. military bases into export terminals ‘could be an encroachment risk and potentially harm military training, operations, and readiness,’ while doing ‘nothing to help address the impacts of climate change or benefit the energy resiliency of Department of Defense installations,’ Smith added.” [The Hill, 10/16/18 (+)]

The FBI of the National Park Service. “The elite special agents assigned to the ISB—the National Park Service’s homegrown equivalent to the FBI—are charged with investigating the most complex crimes committed on the more than 85 million acres of national parks, monuments, historical sites, and preserves administered by the National Park Service, from Alaska’s Noatak National Preserve to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. They have solved homicides, tracked serial rapists hiding in the backcountry, averted kidnappings, and interdicted thousands of pounds of drugs. They’ve busted a reality TV host who poached a grizzly bear and infiltrated theft rings trafficking in looted Native American artifacts. But the ISB remains relatively unknown to the general public and even to fellow law enforcement. Local cops and FBI agents are sometimes baffled when Yosemite-based ISB Special Agent Kristy McGee presents her badge in the course of an investigation. ‘They’ll say something like, ‘What do you guys investigate? Littering?’’ she told me recently.” [Outside Online, 10/16/18 (+)]

 

Hearing to assess visitor impact on ‘gateway’ towns. “While lawmakers have long been focused on the national parks maintenance backlog, many small and rural communities at the edge of those well-traveled treasures also face challenges. On Friday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks will examine the impact that millions of annual visitors have on roads, bridges, sewage systems and other local infrastructure in ‘gateway’ communities to places like Yellowstone National Park. The field hearing, led by subcommittee Chairman Steve Daines (R-Mont.), will take place in Gardiner, Mont., Yellowstone’s only year-round entrance.” [E&E News, 10/16/18 (=)]

 

State and Local

 

New acting director in Calif. described as ‘top notch’ “The Bureau of Land Management has chosen a career employee with nearly two decades of experience at the bureau to serve as acting director of the BLM California state office that oversees more than 15 million acres of federal land. Joe Stout, who since early 2015 had served as associate state director, replaces Jerry Perez, who left last week to become supervisor of the 700,000-acre Angeles National Forest — one of the country’s most-visited national forests, less than an hour’s drive north of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Stout started his stint as acting state director yesterday.” [E&E News, 10/16/18 (=)]

 

Nev. office gets another acting director. “The revolving door of acting directors at the Bureau of Land Management’s state offices continues. BLM has appointed a new acting state director to lead the bureau’s Nevada office just five months after Mike Courtney took the stint on a temporary basis, much to the chagrin of Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), who chafed at the idea of a rotation of temporary directors moving through the Silver State.” [E&E News, 10/6/18 (=)]

 

Colorado gets new Bureau of Land Management director with a history of working in the state. “Jamie Connell, a veteran land manager with a long history in Colorado, is returning to the state to direct the Bureau of Land Management as the agency grapples with a pending record oil-and-gas lease sale and a growing battle between conservation interests and energy interests.  As part of a BLM shuffling by the Interior Department, Connell moves from the head of the Oregon-Washington office to the top agency post in Colorado, where she spent a decade working for both the BLM and Forest Service in Silverthorne, Montrose and Glenwood Springs.” [Colorado Sun, 10/16/18 (=)]

An ‘Airbnb’ for hunters and anglers to ‘trespass’ on private land. “Studebaker, Keil and Jeff Dancer launched EntryG8.com, an online marketplace for landowners, outfitters, hunters, anglers, and campers, a month ago to address the access problem, an idea that turned on like a light bulb after the Idaho hunting trip. The web application works like this: Hosts, or landowners, list properties that guests can access for hunting, fishing or camping and other outdoor recreation by paying a ‘trespass fee.’ The online business is analogous to Airbnb, the lodging marketplace where members can use the service to arrange or offer lodging with Airbnb serving as a broker, Keil said.” [Great Falls Tribune, 10/16/18 (=)]