The Bureau of Land Management’s newly hired assistant director for the National Landscape Conservation System was easily sold on the idea of moving to the agency’s new national headquarters for the job.
Mark Lambrecht, most recently director of government affairs of the Montana-based Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, will start his new job Jan. 4. He’ll manage the agency’s 35 million acres of national conservation lands, including conservation areas, national monuments, wild and scenic rivers, scenic and historic trails and wilderness. The three Colorado national conservation areas under his jurisdiction — McInnis Canyon, Dominguez-Escalante and Gunnison Gorge — all are located in western Colorado within easy driving distance of where Lambrecht will be working.
Lambrecht isn’t a stranger to Grand Junction. In his previous job capacity, he spoke at the Grand Junction Outdoors Expo in February in opposition to the wolf reintroduction measure on Colorado’s ballot. He voiced concerns about potential impacts wolves in Colorado could have on big game, which he said he has experienced personally as a hunter in Montana. Colorado’s measure passed in November.
Lambrecht, who has lived in Montana most of his life, said the February visit was his first to Grand Junction.
“I found Grand Junction to be a dynamic community full of really friendly people, and it has all of the amenities that my wife and I are interested in. There’s a lot going on in the city and obviously there’s an unlimited opportunity for outdoor recreation all around the area, so the place really sells itself,” he said.
Lambrecht, his wife Amy and their two sons — one in dental school in Utah, the other an undergraduate college student in Missouri — are avid hunters and anglers.
William Perry Pendley, the BLM’s deputy director for programs and policy, has cited Grand Junction’s low cost of living, short commutes and proximity to recreation as being advantageous when it comes to trying to fill open positions at the new headquarters.
A chief reason for the move was the argument that BLM leadership should live and work close to the lands they manage and people their decisions impact.
The BLM said in a news release that Lambrecht has more than 25 years of experience in natural resource policy, government and public affairs, and environmental management.
“Mark Lambrecht is an incredible leader with extensive experience in government, community partnerships and the private sector. We’re fortunate to have him lead the National Conservation Lands System,” Pendley said in the release.
According to the BLM, its national conservation lands “offer the American people exceptional opportunities for hunting, solitude, wildlife viewing, fishing, history exploration, scientific research, sports shooting, and a wide range of traditional uses.”
The BLM says that at RMEF, Lambrecht was instrumental in helping that organization partner with the BLM, U.S. Forest Service, state agencies and private landowners to conserve or enhance more than 7.4 million acres of habitat and provide public access to more than 1.2 million acres. It says he also played an important role in securing support for the Great American Outdoors Act, which provides permanent, full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and billions of dollars to address deferred maintenance on public lands. Lambrecht said he worked several years on the LWCF and lands-maintenance funding issue in his previous job.
“It’s one of the projects which I was most proud to be a part of,” Lambrecht said.
Now he’s looking forward to playing a role in helping implement the new law.
Other tasks will range from filling out the team working with him to working on new rules covering e-bike use in lands under his jurisdiction, updating guides pertaining to hunting and fishing access on these lands, and strengthening partnerships with conservation and sportsmen groups, industry, Native Americans and other stakeholders with a strong interest in stewardship of the lands, he said.
“I’m excited to get down there. There’s a lot of projects that are awaiting me,” he said.
Lambrecht’s move to the Grand Junction headquarters comes amid uncertainty over its future. Critics of the office’s relocation contend it has weakened the agency and hollowed out its leadership. The administration of president-elect Joe Biden is expected to face pressure from some quarters to move the headquarters back to Washington.
“I haven’t been privy to any of those discussions and that information,” Lambrecht said when asked about the possibility of the headquarters and his position moving again. “What my focus is on is the challenge of managing these lands. That’s the opportunity that I’ve focused on.”
He said an appeal of his new job is its “ideal location” near BLM lands in Colorado and other states.
“It’s an appeal to be able to be in that area to meet with stakeholders and so many people who care so much about the stewardship of those lands,” he said.
Asked if he hopes his job will remain based in Grand Junction for a while, he said, “Certainly it’s appealing to be able to stay in the West and particularly in Grand Junction. It’s a place that I’ve found to be quite attractive and fits with my interests personally. Certainly I would hope that it remains where it is.”
But he added that his focus is on the job and not so much the place where it’s located.
“I know I have enormous challenges ahead of me and I’m ready to meet that challenge,” he said.
Jayson O’Neill with the Western Values Project, an organization frequently critical of the BLM, said in a statement that Pendley and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, through such lame-duck actions as Lambrecht’s hiring, “are burrowing their people into career positions at the expense of America’s shared resources and public lands.”
Lambrecht said his job is not a political appointment, but instead a senior executive service position, and he was hired after going through a rigorous application process.
Lambrecht previously directed a natural resource industry trade association in Montana and has worked for utilities, universities, engineering firms, and former U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
He earned a master’s degree in resource conservation from the University of Montana College of Forestry and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Gonzaga University.
