In early November, the Trump Administration tapped former New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a post that’s been vacant throughout the Administration’s entire first year. Should Pearce be confirmed, he’ll lead an agency that manages a whopping 245 million acres of public land, mostly throughout the Western U.S. And with his nomination hearing approaching, some people in the conservation community are ringing alarm bells about what they say is Pearce's sell-off-friendly track record when it comes to dealing with the very public lands he'll be tasked to oversee.
Pearce has a long history in New Mexico politics. He served at the state level from 1997 to 2003, then as the US House Representative for the state's 2nd District from 2003 to 2019. Before that, he worked in New Mexico's oil-and-gas and mining industries, says Micheal Carrol, the BLM Campaign Director for the Wilderness Society. "He has a well-established track record of being opposed to very idea of public lands," Carrol tells Field & Stream, "so we've started to look at Pearce’s public-lands history in three buckets that are worth noting."
Carrol calls the first of those buckets the "public-land sell-off bucket." The second bucket is Pearce's opposition to more highly protected public lands, particularly National Monuments, he says. The third bucket relates to "his steadfast support, time and again, for drilling and mining interests over all other uses on federal public lands." It's the opinion of the Wilderness Society, Carrol says, that those three buckets should disqualify Pearce from his nomination.
For evidence of Pearce's past support for public-land sell-offs, Carrol points to his 2005 stance on the attempted sell-off of BLM lands via the the budget reconciliation process. Not unlike Utah Sen. Mike Lee's more recent sell-off attempt during budget negotiations in the summer of 2025, the 2005 provision would have put millions of acres on the chopping block. In that instance, the General Mining Law of 1872 would have been amended to allow mining companies to purchase public lands for as little as $1,000 an acre. "He voted and pushed for that provision," Carrol says, though it was ultimately removed from the final legislation thanks to public opposition. According to Carrol, Pearce also supported Utah Rep. Jason Chafettz's infamous attempt to sell more than 3.3 million acres of public land in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming back in 2017, which was shot down after immense pressure from Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and others in the sporting community.
In a statement shared with F&S, Ryan Callaghan, BHA's newly appointed President and CEO, had this to say about Pearce's nomination to head the BLM: "Proudly speaking on behalf of an organization that has many members who work in extractive industries, having a background in oil and gas extraction does not prevent a person from a being a steward of our natural resources or a conservationist," he said. "However, wanting to sell off our public lands along with our resources absolutely does. BHA is committed to working with whoever accepts the nomination for Director of the BLM and impressing upon that person the immense responsibility they have as the steward of 240 million acres of public land freedom that the American people hold in the highest regard."
In 2012, Pearce co-authored a letter with Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah in which he urged then Speaker of the House John Boehner to "dispose of unneeded land" in order to buy down the nation's ballooning deficit. "The federal government owns roughly 650 million acres of land, or 1/3 of the entire landmass of the county," the letter reads. "Over 90% of it is located in the Western states and most of it we do not even need." The letter went on to suggest that "strategically transferring ownership of BLM and US Forest Service land would "reduce land management costs and boost revenue through economic activity."
According to Carrol, Pearce will be well positioned to make good on his 2012 threats of selling off public lands to pay down the national debt should his nomination to head the BLM clear Congress. "He has a long track record of partnering with members of the delegation from Utah to try and advocate for selling off public lands," he says, "so you can only imagine if he came in as the [BLM director] now, with Sen. Mike Lee [serving as head of Senate's Energy and Natural Resource Commission]. We view him as a clear and present danger to the future of America's public lands."
Land Tawney was the CEO of BHA in 2017 when the hunting and angling community rose up against Jason Chafettz's attempted sell-off. Today he heads a new public-lands advocacy group called American Hunters and Anglers. "Mike Lee himself couldn't have picked a better person to dismantle, defund, and ultimately divest us of our public lands," Tawney tells F&S. "The hunting and fishing community sent Washington an undeniable message last summer after Lee's attempted sell off: We don't want any of our public lands sold off. Steve Pearce's nomination to head the BLM is just the latest iteration in a long-running push to sell public lands the highest bidder. The people will have to make their voices heard once again if they want to stop it."
Pearce's confirmation hearing will be held in the US Senate on Wednesday, February 25. If you'd like to weigh in, contact your Senators now through the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121). The hearing will be live streamed at 9:30 AM EST here.
THE 1871 CLUB
