BLM’s New State Director Started This Week
Press release from the BLM:
New BLM State Director Karen Mouritsen. [Photo from the BLM twitter account]
New State Director Karen Mouritsen has joined Bureau of Land Management in California. Mouritsen started in her new position on Jan. 21.
“I am excited to join the California team and look forward to meeting with employees, partners and stakeholders,” Mouritsen said. “Partnerships are pivotal to managing these beautiful landscapes and natural resources that support generations of families and local communities, providing important benefits to Californians and the nation.”
Mouritsen, a 27-year career public servant, comes to the California post after serving the past three years as the State Director for the BLM Eastern States Office, which manages BLM lands and minerals in 22 states along and east of the Mississippi River. In addition, she served as a Regional Facilitator for the Department of Interior reorganization effort.
Over the course of her career, Mouritsen has spent time in Washington, D.C., serving in key leadership roles. These include senior level positions as the BLM Deputy Assistant Director for Energy, Minerals, and Realty Management, BLM Budget Officer and BLM liaison to the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management where she advised and briefed senior leadership on renewable energy, wildlife, wilderness, recreation, land use planning, and interagency cooperation with military partners.
Mouritsen also worked as Acting State Director in Alaska and New Mexico, as well as Acting Associate District Manager in the BLM Southern Nevada District Office in Las Vegas and the Medford District Office in Oregon.
Prior to working for the BLM, Mouritsen served as an attorney advisor in the Interior Department’s Office of the Solicitor for 10 years beginning in 1992. There she provided legal expertise on BLM issues, including endangered species, land use planning and forestry matters.
Mouritsen—a native of Dallas—received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin College of Engineering in 1983. She earned her Juris Doctor degree at the University of Texas at Austin Law School in 1992 before launching her Federal career.
As BLM California State Director, Mouritsen will lead a team that administers 15 million acres of public lands and 42 million acres of minerals and energy resources in California, as well as 1.6 million surface acres in northwestern Nevada.
BLM public lands extend across coastal areas, rangelands, forests, high mountains and deserts making California one of the most diverse states in the nation.
Mouritsen takes over from Acting State Director Joe Stout, who will return to his post as BLM-California Associate State Director, where he will work closely with Mouritsen to ensure continuity of leadership.
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🕯🌳Good morning Kym, boy is she in for a surprise. 🖖👁📡
If she is an appointee of the trump administration, expect less protection and more emphasis on “resources”.
A close friend who has worked with BLM for decades describes “roadblocks” being designed to limit truly protecting BLM territory.
And even if the criminal president is not re-elected, she will likely be there for a year plus after, as I understand those positions take a long time to re-fill following the change of regime.
Resist!
There all criminals . The Clinton foundation is one of the biggest criminal entity’s in America. Don’t fool yourself
BLM was a pain in the ass every time I had to deal with them over the last 25 years.
Improvement shouldn’t be a difficult task.
Trump-Trump–TrumpTrump; I see him in my dreams, I see him in the beams, I see him in the streams and in my trouser seams, He’s everywhere can’t you see? Trump-Trump–Trump, Trump, Aha, Oho-they’re coming to take me away aha, they’re coming to take me away, to the Trump hotel, where I’ll feel so swell when they finally take me away. AAAAAaaaaaaaa Trump-Trump–Trump, Trump.
…with trees and flowers and chirping birds and those nice young men in their clean white coats…
Hope you really enjoy your new job as BLM State Director. Please have an open mind to input from both sides of the isle, and keep us informed as to what is taking place from time to time.
Her resume certainly looks thin in the areas forestry, wildlife, fisheries, geology, fire, and recreation. I hope she’s a good enough manager to surround herself with experts in these areas and listens to their advice.
BLM should really allow, maybe even encourage, the public to cut firewood on their lands….they have so much fuel on the ground in their forests, yet cleaning it up and putting it to good use is a crime. The State Forest seems to get it….cheap firewood permits for State Forest. But BLM just lets all that fuel pile up year after year, with no wood cutting allowed. Why!?
Extreme STUPIDITY!!!
Because if you let some people loose out there with a chain saw, they’ll cut the best and leave the worst, or be out there in the middle red flag weather with a chain saw with no spark arrester. Unfortunately someone has to ride oversight.
Have tried contacting BLM to see if there’s a firewood program already in place?
If not, maybe you could spearhead an effort to get one going.
I worked for BLM for several years and there are definitely firewood permits… They may have designated locations and seasons for collecting where you are but those are to protect migratory birds. Just call your local office and ask for the forester.
People mostly follow the rules and only cut down and dead wood. It’s not a problem in the National Forest, shouldn’t be a problem on BLM either.
BLM does offer permits, sometimes, in small areas that are usually special project areas. But not permits that are good throughout the BLM forests, like the National Forest does.
Wood cutters definitely reduce fuel significantly. Firewood size wood carries a lot of fast burning BTUs.
Plus, the Eco benefits of heating with wood from a local Forest is so much better than the footprint of gas, electric, or fuel oil heat. Dead trees will release their carbon anyway, might as well heat my house with it, and skip the huge amount of resources used to have gas magically arrive at your house. Really a whole chain of extraction, production, and transport is involved in getting that natural gas or electricity to your house.
So here comes a new chief who knows nothing about the west.
I’d like to speak to the manager!
🕯🌳I’ll second that. 👁🖖
I have complaints many complaints
Stupidity indeed. I drive right past BLM land LOADED with downed trees, to get to National Forest land that I have to hunt through for firewood, because only the National Forest will sell me a permit to cut wood….and reduce fuel loads.
Yeah, that does seem stupid. Have you tried contacting a resource manager at BLM to see whether a firewood cutting program could be started? Most of the foresters I know in resource agencies want the public to be able to benefit from the public lands. They’re also overworked. Maybe you could be a squeaky wheel.
On the other hand, the size of down wood used for fire wood is much larger than the size that contributes to wildfire spread. It’s the small stuff that matters most to fire fighters because it starts quickly and burns fast.
Interesting…. Ms. Mouritsen is a defendent in a lawsuit brought by a tribe up in Alaska over an exploration permit for a mining operation that they contend did not look into the potential for damage due to accidental release of mine tailings (which has, in fact, happened a number of times). She’s also named in a lawsuit contending that the environmental analysis for a fracking proposal in California was inadequate
For anyone who’s interested: https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/Complaint%2C%2012-4-17.pdf
She’s also named in a lawsuit contending that the environmental analysis for a fracking proposal in California was inadequate
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/california_fracking/pdfs/California-Fracking-Complaint-Jan-2020.pdf
I do not trust that haircut…
If anybody wants to learn about the true deep state in the Belly of the BLM… A must-read is arrow to the heart the last battle of the Little Bighorn the Custer Battlefield Museum versus the federal government. Read the reviews on Amazon!
The deep state is like the Loch Ness monster. If you think you see something dark lurking below the surface, the Loch Ness monster is one possible explanation. If you’re a member of the Loch Ness Monster Sociey, you’ll just go with Loch Ness Monster and stop thinking.
This would apply to Chem Trails as well.
Dear Kym,
Back in the day not so long ago, so many days people can’t remember. We were cutting down all the trees for our paper and building needs. Then one day someone decided that if we cut down all the trees we would be doomed. So they wanted a replacement for wood products and came up with plastic. At first it was a great idea and they soon realized that pastic was bad and the pollution it caused. And so here we are. Do you want trees? Or do you want plastic? I personally….have to end here. Too much to debate. Letting you know i will not respond to any comments.
Just the ones in your head?
#CannibalismIsTheCure.
Karen E. Mouritsen is a ES-00 under the senior executive service payscale and is among the highest-paid ten percent of employees in the Bureau of Land Management.
Year Occupation Paygrade Base Salary Bonus Location
2018 Program Management ES-00 $174,147 $0 Washington, District of Columbia
That was before her current promotion….
Guess what? $180,000/year for a public employee of top management is not so much these days. Take a look around. The top managers (department heads) of Trinity County used to make that much, according to the figures I was privy to when a member of a grand jury. Now, I think they make closer to $195,000. Thats according to an article in the TC Journal (By Sally Morris The Trinity Journal Dec 20, 2017). It’s supposed to be public information, so as an ex GJ member I’m allowed to say it. Look it up if you care. It’s the corruption, malfeasance and misfeasance, that goes along with that 180K that is so disgusting. The downplaying of all this is evident, noticeable even in comments above by what is now called “cheerleaders”.
Are chemtrails real? I don’t know. But this guy seems to think they are;
http://www.social-consciousness.com/2017/03/putin-warns-western-governments-are-destroying-planet-with-chemtrails-for-control-profit.html
Stop leasing land to ranchers for dirt cheap. The running of cattle has serious consequences for the environment and only serves to further enrich the wealthy.
My neighbour, not some rich guy, used to graze his 35 cattle on forest land. He had grazing rights, very limited, and he did not lease the land. The grazing rights went back over 100 years. Read what Allen Savory has to say in his “Ted talks” on this subject; if you have the time and really care.
The only really serious consequences that I know of for small numbers of cattle running on public land are the damage to water sources when trampled by the cattle, which is why a rancher can loose their grazing rights if they don’t keep the cattle out of water sources, like springs and headwaters of creeks.
TDS Trump Derangement Syndrome is a treatable mental disorder, contact a cult therapist.