{"id":38401,"date":"2022-09-15T18:25:56","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T00:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blm-director-lays-out-plan-for-grand-junction-office\/"},"modified":"2022-09-16T00:25:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T00:25:56","slug":"blm-director-lays-out-plan-for-grand-junction-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blm-director-lays-out-plan-for-grand-junction-office\/","title":{"rendered":"BLM director lays out plan for Grand Junction office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Bureau of Land Management\u2019s Grand Junction office is housed in this office building on Horizon Drive. Currently, of the 480 BLM headquarters jobs spread across the West, 100 remain vacant.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning has outlined plans to staff the western office in Grand Junction, as the official headquarters moves back to the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

In an email Stone-Manning sent to staff members last week and obtained by CPR News, she wrote that for the first time, the BLM \u201cwill staff the Grand Junction office to full capacity.\u201d She also hinted that further growth could be possible.<\/p>\n

Brian Hires, a spokesperson for the BLM, said the agency is committed to maintaining a strong presence in \u201cour Western Headquarters office in Grand Junction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are moving forward to staff the office space to full capacity of 56 employees and base leadership positions in this office. These leadership positions will include a new Senior Executive Service (SES) position as well as the Assistant Director and Deputy Assistant Director for our National Conservation Lands and Community Partnerships program,\u201d Hires said in a statement. \u201cThis is in addition to the existing field office in Grand Junction, which hosts an additional 70 employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was welcome news to members of Colorado\u2019s congressional delegation, who have been advocating for a continued BLM presence in Grand Junction, as many expected the Biden administration to move the headquarters back to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re glad to see the BLM following through on its commitment to a robust Western Headquarters in Grand Junction,\u201d said Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper in a joint statement. \u201cStaffing the office to full capacity and locating key leadership positions in the West will strengthen public lands management and give our communities a seat at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, invited Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to visit the BLM headquarters in Grand Junction last year as part of a bipartisan pitch to keep a BLM presence in Colorado.<\/p>\n

The area\u2019s congresswoman Lauren Boebert said in a statement she was \u201cthrilled\u201d by the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis wouldn\u2019t have happened without bipartisan collaboration and strong grassroots support. The Western Headquarters\u2019 jobs we were able to keep in the community is a victory for the Third District,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

What jobs are staying and possibly coming to Grand Junction?<\/div>\n

\"Stone-Manning\"
Stone-Manning<\/span>Alex Brandon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the email, Stone-Manning wrote, \u201cGrand Junction is an ideal location for continuing to develop approaches for managing the interplay of energy development, recreation and conservation.\u201d The BLM\u2019s National Conservation Lands and Community Partnership program is \u201cwell-suited to anchor the western office of the headquarters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

All vacant positions in that office will be advertised as working in Grand Junction, and the other positions in that office, with some exceptions, will have Grand Junction as their duty station by January 2023. Remote work will be possible through the end of fiscal year 2023 \u201cto ensure smooth transitions for employees and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new SES position will act as a liaison in the region, working closely with leadership in Washington, D.C. There will also be three new positions in the Renewable Energy Coordination Office.<\/p>\n

As for the future growth of the office, Stone-Manning said the agency plans to explore setting up a Restoration Center of Excellence at the Grand Junction office.<\/p>\n

According to the email, the decision was \u201cinformed\u201d by a staff survey conducted in summer 2021 and work of the Employee Advisory Group, set up earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The plan caps a three-year effort to make the Western Slope city the home of a government agency. The move from Washington, D.C., was criticized as an attempt to hollow out the BLM, and for being a much smaller relocation to Grand Junction than anticipated.<\/p>\n

Instead of moving all headquarters jobs to Grand Junction, hundreds of jobs were scattered across the West, with Grand Junction getting 27 positions. That was later increased to 41 positions. Many, however, did not make the move because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

is to make Western Slope city home of a government agency, but not headquarters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38401"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}