Elections have consequences. On Thursday, the Biden Administration got its pick of Tracy Stone-Manning for the director of the Bureau of Land Management at the Department of Interior. She was confirmed 50-45, along party lines. Republicans had argued against her due to her work as an environmentalist who supported the driving of spikes into trees in order to discourage logging, with the idea that the spikes would do deadly harm to loggers working in the forest.
Tracking Biden’s picks to fill the top roles in his administration
Alaska’s senators voted against her.
“Senate Democrats are on the verge of confirming several truly unprecedented nominees—including Tracy Stone-Manning, a former member of the ecoterrorist group Earth First, who President Biden chose to lead the Bureau of Land Management. I’m speaking live on the Senate floor, calling on my Democratic colleagues to reject the radical nominees this president has put forward for some of the most powerful and important posts in the federal government,” Sullivan wrote.
What’s the fuss about Stone-Manning? In 1989, she sent an anonymous letter to the U.S. Forest serve about the spikes she said were nailed into trees in a tract of timber set for harvest.
Her letter resulted in a federal law enforcement investigation at student housing at the University of Montana, where she attended school. Two people were arrested and, in part based on her testimony, were found guilty and went to federal prison.
She now leads the agency that has the power to shut down much land in the West for resource development or grazing.
In July, Sen. Lisa Murkowski signed a letter sent by Republican members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to President Joe Biden objecting to the nomination, to no avail.
