By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press
Acting U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt ordered federal land managers on Thursday to give greater priority to access for hunting, fishing and other kinds of recreation when the government considers selling or trading public land.
The secretarial order comes amid longstanding complaints that millions of acres of state and federal land in the American West can be reached only by traveling across private property or small slivers of public land.
Bernhardt’s order requires the Bureau of Land Management to identify alternatives to access that could be lost during land sales or exchanges.
The order could help boost Bernhardt’s credentials among conservation groups ahead of a Senate confirmation hearing next week in which Democrats are likely to highlight his past work as an energy industry lobbyist.
Colorado’s U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, has vowed to support Bernhardt’s confirmation. His Democratic counterpart, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, is opposed.
Bernhardt, a Colorado native, has been nominated to replace former Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned in January.
The acting secretary said in a statement that the Trump administration “has and will continue to prioritize access so that people can hunt, fish, camp and recreate on our public lands.”
Hunting and fishing advocates had pressed the administration to address the issue and close what they considered a loophole in federal land policies.
The Bureau of Land Management oversees almost 400,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) of federal land, much of it in Colorado. A 1976 law requires agency officials to identify lands for potential sale or exchange, but not to look at potential effects on recreational access.
As a result, the Bureau of Land Management has identified for potential sale 11 parcels of land totaling 4.3 square miles (11.3 square kilometers) adjacent to the Bighorn National Forest west of Buffalo, Wyoming, said Joel Webster with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
The area sits beneath the towering peaks of the Bighorn Mountains, and one of the parcels identified for potential sale has a hiking trail passing directly through it, Webster said.
Another area identified for potential sale — an 8-square mile (20-square kilometer) tract of mostly grasslands near Miles City, Montana — is popular for deer, antelope and bird hunting and can be accessed from a nearby highway.
“It is one of the the best mule deer hunting areas in the nation,” Webster said. “The BLM just has not been thinking about recreational access when they’ve been looking to sell lands. We think this order means much fewer acres with access are going to be available for sale.”