THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY • November 6, 2025
The Trump administration announced the nomination of former New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management yesterday, tapping an anti-public lands hardliner to lead the nation’s largest land management agency, which oversees some 245 million acres of public lands. Pearce has championed the sale of public lands, opposed the protection of national monuments (including in his home state), worked to protect oil and gas companies from paying higher royalties to taxpayers and suggested that he wants to reverse the “trend” of public land ownership.