Billings, Mont. • A newly appointed Trump administration official said his past support for selling federal lands was “irrelevant,” after his selection to oversee an agency managing nearly a quarter-billion public acres in the U.S. West drew a backlash.
Acting Bureau of Land Management Director William Perry Pendley moved to disavow his longtime advocacy for federal land sales amid continued criticism over his appointment.
The Wyoming native has previously accused government agencies of illegally blocking ranchers, miners and oil and gas companies from profiting off publicly owned range and forest. He argued in a 2016 National Review article that the "Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold.