Former BLM Director Says Steve Pearce’s Confirmation Is Good News For Wyoming

The U.S. Senate confirmed former New Mexico congressman Steve Pearce as director of the Bureau of Land Management in a 46-43 vote earlier this week. For Wyoming, where nearly half the land is federally owned and battles over grazing, drilling, conservation, and recreation often define the economy and culture, Pearce’s appointment signals a potential course correction after years of tension between Western land users and federal land managers.

“What the BLM director decides determines the fate of Wyoming with regard to its ability to use the land,” said William Perry Pendley, who served as acting BLM director during Trump’s first administration. In Sweetwater County alone, roughly 74% of the land is managed by the federal government. From oil rigs and cattle allotments to antelope habitat and off-road trails, decisions made inside the BLM ripple across nearly every corner of Wyoming life.

Supporters say Pearce is likely to restore a stronger emphasis on the BLM’s longstanding “multiple use” mission—the balancing of grazing, mineral development, recreation, wildlife, and conservation on the same landscape. Pendley and Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna said land users became increasingly frustrated during the Biden administration, particularly over the agency’s public lands rule, which critics argued elevated conservation above other uses. “BLM land is multiple-use land, as decided by Congress,” Pendley said. “It’s supposed to be used for all sorts of things.”

The Biden-era approach, both argued, treated public lands more as “single-use lands,” limiting opportunities for oil and gas leasing and grazing. Magagna said the debate created unnecessary division between conservation groups and traditional land users. “Conservation ought to be part of the ethic that guides how we use the land,” he said. “We encourage our members to manage their grazing with a conservation ethic in mind.”

Not everyone is a fan. The Wilderness Society called Pearce a “longtime sell-off advocate” and said it expects him to “side with special interests.” The Sierra Club called him “sell-off Steve,” with its Montana chapter director saying Pearce “is the perfect person to implement the Trump administration’s goals to put industrial-level drilling, mining, logging and grazing over all other uses of federal lands.”

Being from the West and having experience with Western issues will be invaluable, Pendley said. During Trump’s first administration, Pendley helped oversee the relocation of BLM headquarters from Washington to Grand Junction, Colorado. “In Washington, we made decisions based on photographs, pieces of paper and maps,” he said. “You’re 2,000 miles and multiple time zones away from the land you’re involved with.” The move west allowed him to visit field offices that had never before seen a national BLM director and personally witness Western wildfire seasons. “I saw the clouds in the sky. I smelled the smoke. I saw the ash on my car.”

Magagna said Pearce also arrives at a time when the agency badly needs stability. “We haven’t had a confirmed BLM director for a year and a half now,” he said of Wyoming’s BLM leadership. Frequent leadership changes and shifting political priorities have created uncertainty for land users and BLM employees. “Good professionals have devoted their careers to staying in one place and getting to know the intricacies of the land,” Magagna said. “We’ll be anxious to start working with him.”

While much attention centers on oil, gas, and grazing, Pendley said recreation could also become a larger focus. “BLM lands are, for many people, an undiscovered recreational resource.” That could matter in Wyoming, where outdoor recreation continues growing as an economic force alongside traditional industries. Pearce, who flew combat missions during the Vietnam War and built a career in the oil industry before serving in Congress, has already been praised by groups including the Western Energy Alliance for supporting fossil fuel development and traditional land-use policies.