and is republished here by permission.
“When you’re located in a place that has no public lands at all, you just don’t understand it,” said Robin Brown, executive director of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership.
It’s just one of the reasons she’s glad that, after years of talking about moving, the Bureau of Land Management headquarters relocated its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to the Western Slope of Colorado, a place with lots of public lands.
On top of that, Brown celebrates the fact that it’s been a boon to the local economy, bringing jobs “and they’re high wage jobs.” and the cachet that comes with being the home of the BLM headquarters also doesn’t hurt, either.
Stina Sieg/CPR News
The Bureau of Land Management will learn Wednesday how many of its career staff will follow orders and move to new posts across the West. About two dozen positions will be based at the BLM’s new national headquarters in the small, high-desert city of Grand Junction. More than 70 percent of Mesa County is public land, including this rocky swath, about 15 miles from new head office.
“When you re located in a place that has no public lands at all, you just don t understand it,” said Robin Brown, executive director of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership.
It’s just one of the reasons she’s glad that, after years of talking about moving, the Bureau of Land Management headquarters relocated its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to the Western Slope of Colorado, a place with lots of public lands.
A climate-action executive order signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday was cheered by conservationists and top Colorado Democratic political officeholders while being met by an immediate legal challenge over a provision suspending oil and gas leasing involving federal lands and waters pending a review.
The wide-ranging executive order also includes measures such as making climate considerations an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security, seeking to conserve 30% of lands and oceans by 2030, creating a White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy and a National Climate Task Force, and directing federal agencies to procure carbon-free electricity and zero-emission vehicles, eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and work to spur clean-energy technologies and infrastructure.