The nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to head the U.S. Bureau of Land Management should be withdrawn for a number of reasons, including her work with two men later imprisoned for acts of eco-terrorism, according to U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney.
Cheney joined her colleague U.S. Sen. John Barrasso this week in opposing President Joe Biden’s current nominee to head the BLM.
Cheney penned a letter to Biden on Thursday, formally asking him to withdraw Stone-Manning’s nomination to head the BLM for a number of reasons, including her previous friendship with two men who were convicted of putting spikes into hundreds of trees in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest to block a timber sale in 1989.
“Through these actions, she has shown she is not the right person to lead the BLM and her nomination should be immediately withdrawn,” the representative wrote in her letter to the president.
The letter cited several examples of Stone-Manning’s past policy positions and actions that Cheney felt made her unfit to lead the bureau, including her comments critical of “multiple use,” a BLM policy requiring that resources on public lands be used for a variety of purposes to best benefit the public. Cheney also pointed to Stone-Manning’s support for penalizing the energy industry, her opposition to the sage-grouse final environmental impact statements and her involvement in the tree-spiking incident.
Cheney added that Stone-Manning’s beliefs showed a “complete lack of understanding needed to manage lands consistent with BLM’s core mandate of multiple use,” which would continue to diminish economic activity in rural states and cause harm to communities across the west.
According to Fox News, Stone-Manning was granted immunity in the tree spiking incident in exchange for admitting that she retyped and sent an anonymous and threatening letter to the U.S. Forest Service on behalf of John P. Blount, her former roommate and friend.
Stone-Manning eventually testified against Blount and Jeffrey Fairchild, both of whom were later convicted of the tree spiking, according to E&E News. Court records indicated she had no knowledge of the tree spiking itself.
Cheney said Stone-Manning’s involvement in the incident was highly disturbing and added that former BLM director Bob Alley, who served under President Barack Obama, even felt her nomination should be withdrawn due to her ties with eco-terrorists.
This echoed similar statements made by Barrasso over the last month about the BLM nominee.
“Tracy Stone-Manning lied to the Senate (Energy and Natural Resources) Committee by claiming the tree spiking was ‘alleged’ & that she was never investigated,” Barrasso said on social media in late June. “Now, we have confirmation that neither of those things are true. @POTUS must withdraw her nomination.”
Stone-Manning is a longtime Montana government official and current senior adviser for conservation policy at the National Wildlife Federation.
