WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Idaho rancher and tech billionaire who has a history of clashing with the U.S. Forest Service is on track to oversee the agency.
A U.S. Senate committee held a hearing Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s nomination of Michael Boren to be the Agriculture Department’s undersecretary for natural resources and environment.
The Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry committee did not vote Tuesday, and a committee staff member told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that no vote has yet been scheduled. But the Republican-led panel, which does not include either of Wyoming’s senators, is expected to advance the nomination.
If confirmed by the full, Republican-controlled Senate, Boren would directly oversee the USFS, which manages nearly 200 million acres in western states including more than 9 million in Wyoming.
Similar to the Bureau of Land Management, the USFS issues permits for energy development, timber harvesting and livestock grazing on public lands, while also fighting wildfires and managing recreational uses such as hiking and off-roading.
Policies that promote logging, coal mining, and oil and gas drilling on public lands are top priorities for Trump and congressional Republicans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the agriculture committee’s top Democrat, said at Tuesday’s hearing that 4,000 jobs at the USFS have been cut since January as part of Trump’s moves to downsize the whole federal government.
History Of Clashes
Boren, 62, owns the 480-acre Hell Roaring Ranch near Stanley, Idaho, within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, according to the Idaho Mountain Express. He is a co-founder of multibillion-dollar tech company Clearwater Analytics, headquartered in Boise.
According to E&E News, in a dispute that was still unresolved as of late May, the USFS accused Boren of clearing land and building a cabin without authorization.
The New York Times reported Boren was once accused of “flying a helicopter dangerously close to a crew building a Forest Service trail, prompting officials to seek a restraining order.”
Other issues he has had with the USFS include diverting a stream and building an airstrip. Multiple media outlets have documented criticism from his neighbors over the airstrip.
Risch Defends Boren
U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, introduced Boren at Tuesday’s hearing and shrugged off the dustups between Boren and the agency.
Risch said it is common for disputes to arise regarding “inholdings” — privately owned land within boundaries of public lands.
Under prior administrations, Risch said, BLM and USFS personnel have sometimes been too hostile toward residents of inholdings.
“Usually, the BLM and the Forest Service are not really happy with inholdings,” Risch said.
He said he knows of no one with inholdings “that hasn’t had some disagreement with their neighbor, the federal government.”
Boren told the committee he started a business as a teenager buying logs from the USFS, cutting them into posts and poles and selling them to ranchers.
At one point Boren was an employee of the USFS, planting trees, he said. His father worked for the agency as well, he added.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, said she had no comment on Boren specifically, noting she is not on the agriculture committee, but said she supports Trump’s nominees in general.
The offices of U.S. Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming, and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, did not respond to Wednesday emails seeking comment.
New Boss For Schultz
The USFS is headed by Tom Schultz, a University of Wyoming graduate. As USFS chief, he would report to Boren.
Schultz, who worked for an Idaho timber company as well as state lands agencies in Idaho and Montana, was appointed USFS chief in February by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
The appointment did not require Senate confirmation.
Eight national forests are located in whole or in part in Wyoming, totaling more than 9 million acres in the state. Bridger-Teton, which is entirely within Wyoming’s borders, is the third-largest national forest in the Lower 48 and fifth-largest altogether at 3.4 million acres.
Nesvik, BLM
Other parts of Trump’s public lands team are incomplete.
The full Senate has yet to confirm Brian Nesvik, the former Wyoming Game and Fish leader, for the top job at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Nesvik advanced out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on April 9, surviving a 10-9 tally with the help of Lummis’s vote.
Meanwhile, Trump has yet to nominate someone to lead the BLM in the wake of Kathleen Sgamma’s sudden dropout in April. Sgamma withdrew from consideration amid the surfacing of online criticism that she had once leveled at Trump.
Whoever is nominated for the BLM post will go before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. That panel is stacked with Mountain West senators including Barrasso.
Sean Barry can be reached at sean@cowboystatedaily.com.
