PEARCED IN THE HEART
Uploaded in the Dec. 13, 2025 issue.
Last month, President Donald Trump tapped Rep. Steve Pearce, (R-N.M.), to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The BLM manages 245 million acres of public land and 700 million acres of underground mineral real estate. The agency is responsible for balancing public lands with private uses, such as mining and cattle grazing.
Pearce served in House from 2003 to 2009, and then again from 2011 to 2019. During his tenure in the House, Pearce was an advocate for privatizing public lands.
Over 90% of Mono and Inyo Counties is federally managed public lands.
He co-authored a letter to Congress that pushed for selling public lands for oil and gas drilling, called for the reduction of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in southern New Mexico from roughly 500,000 acres to 54,800, and co-sponsored a bill aimed at amending the Antiquities Act by placing limits on the designation of National Monuments.
His nomination faced significant backlash from environmental advocacy groups. Chief among them was local non-profit Friends of the Inyo.
“Steve Pearce is hostile towards the very existence of public lands,” said Wendy Schneider, executive director of Friends of the Inyo. “He certainly will not be motivated to manage them with conservation or preserving them as part of our heritage as Americans in mind.”
Schneider worried that if confirmed, Pearce would push the outright selling of public lands.
“As head of BLM, he could make public lands available for industrial extraction and other kinds of development,” she lamented.
However, Pearce’s nomination gained support from organizations like National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). According to the NCBA website, the organization represents U.S. cattle producers and works to advance the economic, political, and social interests of the cattle industry.
“Pearce’s experience makes him thoroughly qualified to lead the BLM and tackle the issues federal lands ranchers are facing,” said Kaitlynn Glover, NBCA official. “Ranchers need a permanent BLM director. NCBA members support his nomination, and we urge the Senate to swiftly confirm him.”
Pearce is Trump’s second nomination for this position, after Kathleen Sgamma withdrew her nomination from the agency in April. Sgamma is a native Coloradan and leads the Western Energy Alliance, a Denver-based oil and gas industry group. She did not give a reason for her withdrawal, though she did heavily criticize the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the capital.
Pearce’s nomination has yet to be approved by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The date for his approval hearing has not been set. After the hearing will be a Senate confirmation vote.
