Congress Needs to Fire William Perry Pendley From the BLM

Patagonia and BHA CEOs: Congress Needs to Fire William Perry Pendley From the BLM
Editor’s Note: This special op-ed is by Rose Marcario, the president and CEO of Patagonia, and Land Tawney, president and CEO of the nonprofit conservation group Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

William Perry Pendley needs to leave D.C. for Christmas and not return to his job afterward.

The U.S.’s 640 million acres of public lands and waters belong to all of us. Whether you love to hunt, fish, hike, or canoe—or just like to have a quiet place to stargaze—our public lands and waters are there to enjoy. Though most of us can agree that these wild places need protection, their future depends on constant citizen engagement and, of course, strong leadership.

That’s why the recent appointment of William Perry Pendley as the acting head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an affront to public-land users of all stripes. Pendley, the former head of the conservative law firm Mountain States Legal Foundation, has built a career on trying to weaken federal land-management agencies and outright eliminate all public lands—and yet he’s now tasked with administering millions of acres of land and waters.

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In 2016, Pendley wrote that, in his view, the government should sell its Western lands—an extreme position that few politicians would dare espouse if they didn’t want to get voted out of office. Moreover, in 2017, when President Trump undermined the integrity of the Antiquities Act, one of our most important conservation tools, and opened up public lands to industrial development, Pendley argued that the President hadn’t been aggressive enough. He has been making similar attacks on public lands for decades.

[link:https://www.mensjournal.com/features/patagonia-ceo-congress-needs-to-fire-william-perry-pendley-from-blm/?fbclid=IwAR2d6joPIWWLom6yRXtQzJDC-YnuTj-bHrd6oigRVaLstAgEoojnFL-8LOU|