Tracy Stone-Manning
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/20/william-perry-pendley-while-going-on-a-witch-hunt-for-domestic-terrorism-biden-nominates-an-unrepentant-domestic-terrorist/
If there is a singular issue for the Biden administration, it is rooting out domestic terrorism purportedly perpetrated by right-wing extremists. Nonetheless, Biden nominated as Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) an unrepentant, honest-to-goodness, fear-inducing, caught-red-handed domestic terrorist—one Tracy Stone-Manning, who in 1989, engaged in eco-terrorism, which the FBI labeled as one of the nation’s primary domestic terrorism threats at the time. Despite indisputable evidence of her culpability in a federal felony, Biden continues to support her confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
President Biden should withdraw her nomination; failing that, the Senate must reject it.
In 1989, Tracy Stone-Manning was a graduate student at the University of Montana in Missoula. She joined Earth First!, a radical environmental group that proclaimed, “No compromise in defense of Mother Earth” and that engaged in “monkeywrenching,” which involved the sabotage of equipment used in logging, mining, construction, and livestock grazing. In fact, according to the federal official who investigated her, Stone-Manning “was not only a member of Earth First!, but she played an active role in Earth First! hierarchy” and “wielded significant influence among its members.”
Stone-Manning lived in a house filled with fellow Earth First! acolytes and edited its local newsletter, the Wild Rockies Review. In the late winter or early spring of 1989, one of her “roommates” and part of her “circle of friends,” John P. Blount, conspired with her to spike trees that were part of the Post Office Timber Sale in the Clearwater National Forest in nearby Idaho. She agreed to mail the warning letter to the U.S. Forest Service on Blount’s behalf. To be clear, driving metal spikes into these trees was both a federal crime and an act of eco-terrorism. It was intended to prevent the sale of timber by terrifying the loggers and millworkers who could be injured or even killed if their saws hit the metal spikes as they attempted to harvest the spiked trees.
Blount, who was convicted in 1993 of the tree spiking and sentenced to 17 months in prison, stated that Stone-Manning “knew about [the tree spiking plot] far in advance, a couple of months before we headed out.” In fact, he said Stone-Manning “agreed to mail the letter well in advance. She was supposed to mail the letter from Billings [Montana] where she had planned on going in two or three more days, so that it wasn’t postmarked ‘Missoula.’ That was the agreed-upon plan.”
Instead, Stone-Manning retyped the letter because, as she later explained, her “fingerprints were all over the original,” and she even rented a typewriter because she did not want the letter on her personal computer. Then she mailed it—from Missoula.
The U.S. Forest Service, on receipt of the letter, verified that indeed some 284 trees had been spiked with 340 “bridge construction-type spikes” in the Clearwater National Forest. Forest Service Special Agent Michael Merkley undertook an investigation, which led him and other federal authorities to the house where Stone-Manning and Blount resided. Seven of the house’s residents, including Stone-Manning, were served with subpoenas to appear before a grand jury and to provide hair and handwriting samples and fingerprints.
Stone-Manning refused to provide the required samples—that is, until threatened with arrest and prosecution. Her cooperation ended there. According to Merkley, in a letter he sent to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Stone-Manning refused to answer his questions; she also failed to testify truthfully to the grand jury of her knowledge and role in the tree spiking. Worse yet, she copped an attitude with the special agent. Merkley said, “Stone-Manning was extremely difficult to work with; in fact, she was the nastiest of the suspects. She was vulgar, antagonistic, and extremely anti-government.”
Despite her contemptuous behavior, Stone-Manning portrayed herself as the victim, telling an interviewer in 1990 that the investigation was “degrading. It changed my awareness of the power of government [to do] bad things sometimes.”
As a result of Stone-Manning’s failure to tell what she knew, the case was stalled in 1989. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Breitsameter would later write in a Pretrial Memorandum that by the end of 1989, “the criminal investigation did not develop any substantial evidence as to the identity of the individuals involved in the spiking.”
Three years later, Blount’s former girlfriend contacted federal authorities and reported that Blount had done the tree-spiking, and Stone-Manning had mailed the letter. Federal authorities then contacted Stone-Manning. She hired a lawyer, who obtained an immunity deal, and she testified that Blount had given her the letter to mail.
Thus, Stone-Manning, according to Blount and Merkley, was an accessory before the fact and, by her own admission, an accessory after the fact. Nonetheless, she refused to cooperate with federal law enforcement authorities in 1989, which delayed prosecution for four years. As a result, she may have aided and abetted the commission of a felony. Moreover, over the next 32 years, in various newspaper interviews, Stone-Manning lied about or otherwise misrepresented her role in the tree spiking crime in the Clearwater National Forest.
In 2013, she was similarly opaque or untruthful before the Montana State Senate after her nomination to lead the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. Finally, this year, as Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) pointed out, she lied to the Senate when she declared that she had never been the subject of a federal investigation.
Before all her lies were exposed, Stone-Manning asserted that she did the right thing by mailing the letter as Blount requested. She did not do the right thing. The right thing would have been to contact the FBI or the U.S. Forest Service or the U.S. Attorney for Idaho. Now we know that her obligation to contact law enforcement began not when Blount handed her the letter–if, in fact, that event ever took place—but when Blount and the others began planning the tree spiking in February of 1989.
The BLM and its nearly 10,000 employees are responsible for 245 million acres of public land, 99.99 percent of which lies in the 11 western states and Alaska—10 percent of the country’s land mass—and for 700 million acres of mineral estate throughout the country. Some 65 million acres of that is managed for timber harvesting, a lawful activity with which Stone-Manning criminally interfered. Moreover, the BLM has 300 law enforcement rangers and special agents, like the Forest Service special agent whom she rebuffed, upbraided, and, who out of fear of Earth First!, including death threats against him and threats to harm his family, was forced into early retirement.Finally, some 155 million acres of BLM-managed land is devoted to livestock grazing, an economic activity Earth First! condemned and attacked with “acts of vandalism and violence.”
Westerners, the American public, and the dedicated public servants of the BLM deserve better.
William Perry Pendley, a Wyoming attorney, led the Bureau of Land Management in the Trump administration. He is the author of :{:{Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle With Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today:(style="font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}::(style="font-weight:700;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:.
from coming to humans. Further potential for harm, though, could (and has) come from reckless individuals who do not heed the guidelines of experienced spikers.
Though the person who spiked the tree in the case of the Louisiana-Pacific mill has never been found, the details of the spiking itself suggest that Earth First!ers or associated activists were not involved. The spiked tree was a mere 12 inches in diameter – not the sort of old growth targeted by environmentalists. Additionally, residents of the area from which the tree was extracted had previously complained about LouisianaPacific's operations in their area. One particular landowner in the area admitted to have spiked his own trees in response to the company frequently cutting several feet past property lines.71
https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-calls-on-biden-to-withdraw-blm-nominee-tied-to-eco-terrorism
Press Releases
06.22.21
SULLIVAN CALLS ON BIDEN TO WITHDRAW BLM NOMINEE TIED TO ECO-TERRORISM
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) last night called on President Joe Biden to withdraw his nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to serve as the next director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Sen. Sullivan argued that Stone-Manning is unfit to serve due to her troubling history with Earth First!, a radical environmental group involved in eco-terrorist activities, like tree spiking.
On Monday, the former BLM director during the Obama administration, Bob Abbey, called on Stone-Manning to withdraw her nomination.
Transcript
Madam President, I am here on the Senate floor this afternoon to call on President Biden to withdraw his nomination to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning. He should withdraw her for the reasons I am going to talk about here on the Senate floor, but let me stipulate that, while I have often spoken about what I consider far-left extremist environmentalists who are taking over many elements of the Biden administration, often in the context of why I voted against their confirmation, I have not yet called on--haven't in my entire Senate career--a nomination to be withdrawn before they even have gone through their [vote] before a Senate committee. But I am doing it this afternoon.
The reason I have never done this before is because we have not yet confronted someone with Tracy Stone-Manning's past, which involves being a member, part of an extreme group that performed violent acts as part of their platform for getting attention in America--violence, a group engaging in overt ecoterrorism.
By the way, this is becoming a bipartisan issue--a serious bipartisan issue--as I am going to talk about in a little bit more detail.
The Director of BLM from the Obama-Biden administration just yesterday made a statement saying that, if these allegations are true, which they are, then, he firmly believes that her nomination should be withdrawn by the President. That is Mr. Bob Abbey. So this is a serious issue, and it is a bipartisan issue.
Before I talk about Tracy Stone-Manning's involvement with ecoterrorism, let me start by saying that BLM is an incredibly important and very powerful Federal Agency, particularly as it relates to my State, the great State of Alaska. The Alaska BLM manages more surface and subsurface acres in my State than in any other State in the country, by far. In fact, I haven't done the math, but I believe that they manage more acreage in Alaska than they do in the rest of the lower 48 combined. That is how important BLM is in my State.
Let me give you some of the numbers. This includes over 70 million surface acres of land and 220 million subsurface acres. That is the land equivalent to about one-fifth of the entire lower 48 States. Most States can't even comprehend that size. One-fifth of the lower 48 of the United States of America is the amount of land BLM manages just in the great State of Alaska. So it is a huge amount of land and, of course, by definition, it is a huge amount of power that this Federal Agency has over my State and the people I am honored to represent.
And it is imperative--imperative--for the Director of this Agency, the Bureau of Land Management, with so much power and so much control over my State and its future in economic opportunity for working Alaskan families--that the manager of BLM for the country be trustworthy--to be honest, to be fairminded, to be beyond reproach, and, certainly, not to have been involved in an organization that perpetuated violence against its fellow Americans.
And from what we know about Tracy Stone-Manning, she is none of these things--trustworthy, honest, and fairminded.
That this administration is full of people with far-left agendas certainly isn't surprising. We all know that the national Democratic Party is much further to the left than they were even 4 years ago with the Obama-Biden administration. But what is shocking beyond surprising is that the President of the United States would put forward someone for this incredibly important position in BLM who is not only far left but a member of a group that was an ecoterrorist organization, a group that was undertaking violence against their fellow Americans so they could make a point on environmental issues in America.
This is not an exaggeration. Tracy Stone-Manning was a member of Earth First!, a radical, far-left group that has engaged repeatedly in what is defined as ecoterrorism.
But she wasn't just a member of Earth First!; she herself was complicit in putting metal spikes--big, thick ones--in trees that were meant to either threaten to hurt or gravely injure those Americans who were harvesting trees, who were cutting down trees legally, who were putting trees in saw mills legally.
This was a common technique--tree spiking--deployed by such ecoterrorists in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Earth First! called such tactics “monkey wrenching.” That is kind of cute. It is dangerous. It could kill people--”monkey wrenching.”
Logging crews and the Americans who were legally harvesting timber in our country might have called such tactics terrifying, and certainly called such tactics very, very dangerous.
So let me briefly talk about the group that Tracy Stone-Manning was a member of. Earth First! began in 1980 by disaffected environmentalists who thought the movement wasn't radical enough, thought the movement wasn't getting enough attention. So they founded a new group that wanted to get more attention, sometimes by perpetuating violence. Among its proposed founding principles, “all human decisions should consider Earth first, mankind second”--I am quoting now--”mankind second.” OK. Not sure many U.S. Senators would agree with that. And “the only true test of morality is whether an action, individual, social or political, benefits the earth.” These are founding principles of this organization.
Given these principles, it is no mystery that the group's slogan is this: “No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth.” In their view, “no compromise” meant destroying property, putting steel spikes in trees that could kill someone trying to harvest a tree, and Earth First! celebrated and encouraged such actions.
The group even put out a manual--yes, a manual--detailing tree spiking and instructions on how to do other sabotage activities: cut down powerlines, flatten tires, burn machinery of those who were trying to harvest trees legally.
We harvest trees legally in Alaska. We have loggers who do that, who are from hard-working families.
David Foreman, the founder of Earth First!, talked about all of these activities, and he said: “This is where the ecoteur can have fun.” That is a quote from the founder of Earth First! “Fun.” That is what he called this--”fun.”
Tell that to those violently hurt by some of Earth First!'s tactics.
This is how an article in theWashington Post,from this time, described such an incident of tree spiking that severely, violently hurt one of our fellow Americans. And now I am going to quote from this article:
George Alexander, a third-generation mill worker, was just starting his shift at the Louisiana-Pacific lumber mill in Cloverdale, Calif., when the log that would alter his life rolled down his conveyor belt toward a high-speed saw he was working on.
By the way, I have seen these saws in Alaska, in mills in Alaska. They are huge. This isn't just some kind of tiny saw. They are gigantic, and they spin at incredibly fast speeds with huge teeth. They are dangerous, even when you are operating without tree spikes in the trees.
Let me continue. Here is the continuation of this article from the Washington Post: It was May 1987, and George Alexander was 23 years old. His job was to split logs. He was nearly 3 feet away when the log he was working on hit his saw, and the saw, this giant saw, exploded. One-half of the blade stuck in the log. The other half hit Alexander in the head--again, these are giant saws--tearing through his safety helmet and tearing through his face shield. His face was slashed from eye to chin, his teeth were smashed, and his jaw was cut in half.
That is what Earth First! did to this young American doing his job with a tree spike in it.
I am continuing with the Washington Post article: George Alexander had never even heard of a sabotage tactic called tree spiking until he himself had become a victim of “eco-terrorism.”
That is the Washington Post's word, not my word, “eco-terrorism.”
Someone who objected to tree cutting had imbedded a huge steel spike in the log that violently jammed the saw.
And changed George Alexander's life. Tree spiking.
That is the Washington Post.
These were the kinds of tactics that Tracy Stone-Manning, the Biden administration's choice to lead the BLM for America, once conspired in. Does that disturb you, America?
Every U.S. Senator on the floor here in this body should be very, very disturbed.
Mr. President--and now I am talking to the President of the United States--think about this, sir. I say respectfully:Come on, man. This is the most qualified American citizen you can find to be the BLM Director?
She was part of a group--not just a radical, extreme environmental group but a radical, extreme, violent, environmental group.
President Biden, this should be a redline that we all agree to: no nominees who conducted violence against their fellow Americans.
But what did she do specifically? The Biden administration's Director of BLM--nominated Director of BLM--here is what she did. In 1989, she did a friend, a fellow Earth First! colleague--”comrade” maybe is a better word--she did a friend, a comrade, a fellow comrade a favor. She rewrote word-for-word a profane, anonymous letter from this member of Earth First! about the 500 pounds of tree spikes that Earth First! had hammered into trees in Idaho--by Earth First! Pretty dangerous. Pretty violent. She rewrote the letter on a rented typewriter because, she later told a reporter, “her fingerprints were all over” it. So she knew she was obviously involved in criminal activity. So she didn't just handwrite it. She didn't want her fingerprints on it. She typed it. She then sent the letter to the FBI.
She kept quiet on what she did for years--that was in 1989--until she came forward in 1993 and received immunity for her part in this tree spiking in Idaho, 500 pounds of spikes. This is a serious operation. Deadly. Could be deadly. She received immunity for her part in this tree spiking when prosecutors went after the other members of Earth First! and she testified about it.
Here is something that should be very simple for all of us. No matter how young, no matter how naive, the Director of the Bureau of Land Management for the United States of America should not--and I repeat, should not--have ever been involved in ecoterrorism. That is simply unacceptable, and the President of the United States should get that, and certainly every U.S. Senator should get that.
Working with people who were so radical on environmental issues that they thought it was OK to perpetuate violence against their fellow American citizens--come on, man.
President Biden, you cannot be serious.
It is not only me who thinks this is an outrage. I want to compliment my Senate colleague Senator Barrasso, who has been doing a great job. Unfortunately, our press has been asleep at the switch. Senator Barrasso has been doing a great job of highlighting these very issues. But, as I said earlier, this is now becoming a bipartisan issue. It is not just me and Senator Barrasso who have been raising this issue. Just yesterday, Bob Abbey, who led the BLM from 2009 through 2012 under President Obama and Vice President Biden, said the following:
If the reports regarding Ms. Stone-Manning's involvement with spiking trees are true, then I firmly believe she should immediately withdraw her name from further consideration for the BLM director job.
Let me read that again. The BLM Director of the Biden-Obama administration just yesterday said the following:
If the reports regarding Ms. Stone-Manning's involvement with spiking trees are true, then I firmly believe she should immediately withdraw her name from further consideration for the BLM director job.
Well, guess what. The reports about her involvement with tree spiking by the ecoterrorist organization Earth First! meant to harm her fellow Americans are true. They are true.
Madam President, there are other issues that also call into question Ms. Stone-Manning's character. I am not going to get into these. I will let others focus on them--low interest loans, other things. That is in some ways, in my view, a distraction. Her involvement with an organization that was focused on ecoterrorism certainly disqualifies her, and the President of the United States should know this.
I didn't agree with Bob Abbey on much when he was the head of BLM under the Obama-Biden administration, but I certainly agree with him about Tracy Stone-Manning, and I believe the President of the United States should withdraw her name from further consideration. If the President doesn't do that because he gets pressure from the extreme left, then I certainly hope--I certainly hope--my colleagues here in the U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans, will resoundingly vote to reject this nomination when it comes to the Senate floor.
Yes, we have differences on issues of resource development, energy for America, certainly on issues of jobs and resource development in my great State, the great State of Alaska. We have differences. There is no doubt about it. But here is the thing: We all know--I think every one of us, all 100 Senators, know and would say publicly that these differences should be resolved peacefully in debates here on the Senate floor, at the ballot box, arguing these issues--forcefully, yes, but not violently, not with violence.
So if this nominee comes to this floor, it shouldn't be even a close vote; it should be 100 to 0 rejecting her.
To my Democratic colleagues, I hope you join me, like Mr. Bob Abbey, in saying: Mr. President, guess what--you screwed up here. Withdraw her.
But if he won't do that, I hope every U.S. Senator votes against this. We cannot condone, endorse, or vote for somebody who has been part of an ecoterrorist, radical, extreme, violent organization.
My colleagues, America will be watching. If you vote for her, you have to go home and explain that vote to your fellow Americans. As I mentioned, it is one thing for this administration to put forward far-left, extreme environmental nominees. It is quite another to put forward afar-left, extreme, violent environmental nominee,and that is what she is.
To the President of the United States: Respectfully, sir, you need to withdraw this nomination.
To my colleagues on the Senate floor here: Respectfully to all of you, if the President doesn't take this commonsense action, we need to decisively reject this nomination when it comes to the floor of the U.S. Senate.
ltr ed
rECENTLY, I learned that President Joe Biden has nominated a person as director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who is “awaiting a vote by the Senate”; the name of that person is Tracy Stone-Manning.
As a longtime forest landowner and certified tree farmer, I and many others are strongly opposed to this person who certainly is not qualified for the director’s position of the BLM. TheThomson Family Tree Farm is also a member of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, which, in turn, is a member of the American Loggers Council. The American Loggers Council, opposes the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning.
The BLM is made up of 10,000 employees, which the director would oversee, along with another 300 law enforcement rangers and special agents. The BLM is also responsible for 245 million acres of public land or 10% of the total landmass in the United States. Some of that public land is used, as mandated by Congress, for the sustainable harvesting of timber resources.
A recent op-ed by William Perry Pendley (http://bit.ly/2Zwfnc9) spotlights the history of this radical choice President Biden has picked to head up the BLM, as well as her involvement years ago with the “Earth First” radical environmental group. Tracy Stone-Manning was very much involved in what is known as “Tree Spiking” in 1989 in an effort to stop an approved logging sale on the national forest timberland in Idaho.
As New Hampshire’s U.S. senators know, any timber sale on federal land goes through a long, well-vetted process before it is approved. Then a forester marks with paint the trees to be cut. Shortly after the trees were marked, large metal spikes 8 to 10 inches long were driven into the marked trees by Earth First, eco-terrorism that created mayhem for the loggers cutting these trees and then workers handling them in sawmills. One California mill worker was permanently disfigured and nearly killed by a spiked tree.
Tracy Stone-Manning has never admitted to her involvement in this federal crime for which some were sent to prison, nor has she apologized or expressed regret for her actions or those of Earth First radicals. In a document she completed for the U.S. Senate, she even claims to have never been the subject of a federal investigation.
I have owned forestland for more than 60 years and have seen many positive changes in the forest industry. Despite all the safety and the sophisticated computerized forest equipment we have today to satisfy this nation’s wood consumption, it remains one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. Why would President Joe Biden put someone like Tracy Stone-Manning in this position knowing that she purposely made the jobs of loggers and sawmill workers even more dangerous by her involvement with those who spike trees?
The Thomson Family Tree Farm asks that Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen vote no on President Biden’s pick, Tracy Stone-Manning, for this important position as director of the Bureau of Land Management, knowing her background with Earth First.
We will be watching how our New Hampshire senators vote on this important position. We hope they make the right choice.
Tom Thomson lives in Orford.
caller oppo res?
U.S. Senate voted along party lines Thursday night to make Tracy Stone-Manning the first confirmed director of the Bureau of Land Management since the Obama administration.
The vote, 50-45, ended a contentious confirmation process for Stone-Manning, a senior adviser for conservation policy at the National Wildlife Federation who served as chief of staff to former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat.
It also represented a victory for her biggest supporter, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat for whom Stone-Manning once worked as an aide. Senate Republicans fiercely opposed her nomination, most vocally because of her ties to a 1989 plot to drive spikes into hundreds of trees.
Republicans maintained their resistance up until the last moments before the vote Thursday evening, with a parade of Western senators coming to the floor to register their opposition.
In a tense exchange, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming called her “completely unfit for the job.”
“Ms. Stone-Manning lied to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee about her involvement as an eco-terrorist and in the eco-terrorism,” Barrasso said, adding that Senate Democrats would be “held personally responsible” for voting to confirm her.
Tester told Barrasso he accepted that challenge.
“You’re damn right. Hold me accountable for Tracy Stone-Manning,” he said. “I’ve worked with her. I know what she does. I know she can get the job done. She can bring people together.”
Tester also seemed to lay blame for the Republican campaign against Stone-Manning on his state’s other senator,Republican Steve Daines, saying it was retribution for Stone-Manning’s support of Bullock’s unsuccessful run for Daines’ Senate seat last year.
“I’m going to point out one thing that Tracy Stone-Manning did that was wrong: She actually agreed to be Gov. Bullock’s chief of staff,” Tester said.
“If somebody wants to go in and do an investigation and find out what’s happened over the last three years, with the governor running against a sitting senator in this body and she being the governor’s chief of staff, you will find out why people stand up and make stuff up about Tracy Stone-Manning.”
In a statement after the vote, Stone-Manning said: “I am grateful for the Senate’s vote of confidence today and look forward to bringing decades of experience — working on the ground and across the aisle— to carry out the critical mission of the Bureau of Land Management. Our public lands are one of America’s finest ideas, and I am ready to get to work alongside a remarkable team to ensure future generations benefit from them like we have.”
Rebuilding the BLM
Stone-Manning will be tasked with rebuilding an agency at the center of President Joe Biden’s climate and energy agenda. The BLM oversees nearly 250 million acres of public lands, including roughly 50 million acres in Nevada, and manages the federal oil and gas leasing program.
Biden temporarily paused that program and ordered a review of federal policy when he took office. A federal judge this summer ordered the program be renewed. The Interior Department, of which the BLM is a part, has said it is working to restart leases.
Stone-Manning will oversee the agency’s move back to Washington from Grand Junction, Colo. The move reverses a controversial decision during former President Donald Trump’s administration to relocate the agency to the West, where nearly all BLM lands are.
Opponents said the decision hollowed out the agency influence in the nation’s capital and drove out experienced workers. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced this month the headquarters would be relocated back to Washington.
The agency has lacked a Senate-confirmed leader since Neil Kornze stepped down at the end of President Barack Obama’s term in January 2017. Under Trump, anti-public lands attorney William Perry Pendley ran day-to-day operations as the deputy director for policy and programs, but was never confirmed as the director.
The lack of a Senate-confirmed director led to uncertainty in the agency, including a Montana federal judge invalidating some decisions the BLM made during Pendley’s time in office.
Tree-spiking incident
Days after Stone-Manning’sconfirmation hearing earlier this year at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where Republicans were already skeptical of her political work and opposition to fossil fuel development, the conservative site Daily Callerpublished a report detailing Stone-Manning’s involvement with a 1989 tree-spiking plot while she was a graduate student at the University of Montana.
Though the episode was already public, it was not well known in Washington and the article intensified Republican opposition.
Court records and Stone-Manning’s own account show she mailed a letter in 1989 to the U.S. Forest Service threatening that loggers who attempted to cut down a portion of Clearwater National Forest could be hurt by spikes driven into them in an attempt to sabotage a sale—a federal crime.
She has said, including at her confirmation hearing for a state post in 2013, that the scheme’s organizers approached her and asked her to mail the letter. She said the ringleaders intimidated her and that she wished to warn loggers who may have been in harm’s way. She later testified against two men who were convicted for the tree-spiking.
Other accounts, including froma Forest Service investigator, said she was more involved in planning than she’d indicated. Republican senators also took issue with her response on a pre-hearing questionnaire that she had never been the target of a criminal investigation.
On the Senate floor on Thursday night,Idaho Republican Jim Risch accused Stone-Manning of perjury in a Senate floor speech and said she would have no credibility when she appears before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the BLM, as director.
But it was Tester who had the last word before the vote.
“Now, we’re going to take a good woman, a good woman who the state of Montana knows well, who, in fact, was vetted in the state of Montana and they said all these accusations have no merit,” he said. “And we’re going to run her through the ringer here. Character assassination like I’ve never seen before.”
The aggressive Republican campaign against Stone-Manning belied the reputation she’d built as a consensus builder on conservation issues. She won bipartisan backing from the Republican-led Montana Senate in a 2013 vote to become the state’s director of environmental quality.
mt ppr
Letter to the editor: BLM has director it deserves
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The mission of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is simple: "To sustain the health, diversity and productivity of public lands for the enjoyment of present and future generations."
For two years this mission was challenged by the appointment of Acting Director William Perry-Pendley. Mr. Perry-Pendley was never confirmed by the U.S. Senate and proudly advocated the sale of public lands to private entities.
The absence of response from U.S. Sen. Steve Daines was almost deafening.
Today, we stand at a crossroads to save the mission of the bureau. Over her career, Tracy Stone-Manning has clearly shown her ability to create a healthy balance between public land conservation and the desire of private entities to use the land's potential resources. I'm thrilled she was confirmed as director.
However, as Stone-Manning was working her way through the process, Sen. Daines had a lot to say in opposition to her confirmation.
This makes no sense at all if we wish to retain our Montana motto of "Last Best Place," rather than reminiscing on these lands in the past tense. I'm more than relieved that common sense prevailed and the BLM will have the director it deserves.
Pauline Tait,
Billings