William Perry Pendley, Proponent of Public Land Sell Offs, Nominated to Direct Bureau of Land Management

Update 8/15: President Trump has withdrawn the nomination for William Perry Pendley as Director of the Bureau of Land Management, after Outdoor Alliance, along with many other organizations, submitted a letter strongly opposing the nomination. However, Pendley remains in the position of acting director of the BLM. Outdoor Alliance’s Executive Director, Adam Cramer, said, “Withdrawing the nomination is good and significant, but given what he has said about Black Americans and the LGBTQ+ community, withdrawing Mr. Pendley from his role as the acting director of Bureau of Land Management would be better. Finding someone who earnestly believes in the mission of BLM should not be this difficult.”

Withdrawing the nomination is further evidence of the political power of the outdoor community, which applied pressure to the Senate and to the White House opposing the nomination.

The Senate is preparing to vote on the nomination of William Perry Pendley as Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Pendley, a former oil and gas lobbyist, is a proponent of selling off America’s public lands, declaring that “The Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold” (source) and once suggesting that the BLM should sell all lands east of the Mississippi.

Pendley has actively called for dismantling land management agencies and eliminating public lands, and the idea of the Senate installing him as the chief steward of 247 million acres defies credulity. He has denied the existence of climate change, and actively worked to dismantle core conservation laws, including the Antiquities Act. His extreme positions are not compatible with his duty to manage public lands for the diversity of benefits that is part of the BLM’s multiple use mandate.

Moreover, it is the responsibility of federal officials to manage public lands and waters in way that is welcoming and responsive to all Americans. Pendley has a history of racist and homophobic statements, including calling the Black Lives Matter movement a “terrible lie” that “spread like cancer through inner cities endangering men and women in blue and the citizens who look to them for protection” (source). He has repeatedly referred to children of color as “thugs” (source) and to undocumented immigrants as a “cancer” that increased disease and violent crime and would lead to “you and permanently los[ing] the country we love” (source). He has repeatedly disparaged Indigenous communities (source). These perspectives are shameful.

Our country is in the midst of an overdue reckoning with our history of racism and discrimination against Black, brown, and Indigenous communities, including on our public lands. If the Senate confirms Pendley, someone who has repeatedly espoused racist viewpoints, it will signal to millions of Americans that their identities, histories, values, communities, and beliefs are not valued by this Congress and this country, and that is flatly unacceptable.

Click to read our full letter to the Senate

Outdoor Alliance has submitted a letter to Senate leadership opposing Pendley’s nomination, which can be read in full here. We encourage you to write your Senators and ask them to oppose Pendley’s nomination. We’ve made it easy with the tool below, but encourage you to add your own personal touch.

In particular, if you are a resident of Montana or Colorado, your voice will be especially important, given the recent leadership of Senators Daines and Gardner on public lands matters, such as the Great American Outdoors Act.