Critics of secret BLM meetings share diverse backgrounds

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials have said that they only recently became aware of the desire by many local and state cooperating agencies to open land-use planning meetings to the public. But it cannot be a surprise to the BLM that there has been a wide and diverse range of critics who have long sought greater access to meetings and documents, as many have written to the agency and complained loudly to their elected officials. “We have been beating our heads against the wall with the BLM in the Pinedale area about public access to meetings and materials and documents that should be public,” said Steff Kessler, Wyoming program manager in Lander for The Wilderness Society. Kathleen Jachowski, executive director of the Worland-based Guardians of the Range rancher advocacy group, said BLM staffers had expressed concerns to her about unruly attendees causing cooperator meetings to “deteriorate into bedlam.” “I told them I expected my BLM folks to know how to handle those situations, have the courage to do so, and to not hide behind such an unprofessional barrier,” Jachowski wrote in an e-mail...read more