Trump’s Bureau of Land Management nominee threatens Arizona’s public lands

President Trump recently nominated Steve Pearce — an anti-environmentalist obsessed with selling off public lands — to run the nation’s largest land management agency.

The Bureau of Land Management oversees 245 million acres nationwide, including 12 million acres in Arizona. This includes Ironwood Forest National Monument, the San Pedro River corridor, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and Sonoran Desert National Monument.

These lands harbor endangered wildlife, world-class recreation and sites that are sacred to Arizona’s many Indigenous Tribes. They protect cherished campgrounds, hiking trails, hunting areas and stunning landscapes that draw visitors from around the globe. These places are beloved by Americans and they make Arizona one of the most beautiful states in the nation.

With Pearce at the BLM’s helm, all of this is at risk.

Pearce’s anti-public lands agenda is clear. Much like Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who tried to sell off cherished public lands in Arizona this summer, Pearce spent his years representing New Mexico in the U.S. House hellbent on liquidating public lands across the American West.

In 2012, Pearce wrote that the country did not need most federal lands and urged lawmakers to sell them off. He co-sponsored legislation to force the federal government to unload public lands to state and local governments, which would have opened the door to permanent privatization and development.

If confirmed, Pearce would likely try to weaken protections, accelerate extraction and sell off public lands — just as he tried throughout his career.

This would be a disaster for Arizona’s wildlife. It would also harm our rural communities and economy. Outdoor recreation in Arizona generates more than $21 billion each year and supports over 200,000 jobs, all of which rely on intact, accessible public lands. These landscapes sustain desert river corridors, support recreation and hunting, and guarantee that every Arizonan — not just billionaires who can afford private ranches — can experience the beauty that defines our home.

Pearce’s dangerous agenda would kneecap our outdoor recreation economies, pave over wildlife habitat and push endangered species closer to extinction.

His extremism goes beyond bad policy. In 2011, then-Rep. Pearce encouraged local counties to “take control” of federal public lands. Days later vigilantes illegally bulldozed 13 miles of the San Francisco River in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, plowing through a roadless area and destroying habitat for endangered fish. That same year, he cut down a tree in the Lincoln National Forest in open defiance of Forest Service regulations and endangered species protections. Pearce also led rallies opposing protections for endangered species like the dunes sagebrush lizard and lesser prairie chicken, and sought to delist the Mexican gray wolf and defund its recovery.

His conflicts of interest are glaring. While in Congress, Pearce owned two oilfield equipment companies worth tens of millions of dollars and received more than $2 million in campaign contributions from oil and gas interests. Unsurprisingly, his congressional votes marched in lockstep — accelerating drilling permits, shielding fossil fuel projects from environmental review and attacking wildlife protections.

Pearce used his elected office to advance the interests of the industry that enriched him. Our public lands deserve better.

Last summer, an outpouring of bipartisan opposition blocked Lee’s disgraceful plan to sell off millions of acres of public lands across the American West. Regardless of political party, people in Arizona and across the West overwhelmingly support protecting public lands.

Putting Pearce at the helm of BLM would put Arizona’s cherished landscapes at risk of being stripped of protections, ransacked by extractive industries and sold to the highest bidder.

Arizona’s wildlife, economy and natural heritage depend on keeping these landscapes protected and in public hands, now and for generations to come.

Our public lands are not for sale.