Stone-Manning to head wilderness organization
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) A Missoula resident and current director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management under the Biden administration is poised to head The Wilderness Society early next year.
Tracy Stone-Manning, a 1992 graduate from the University of Montana Environmental Studies Master’s program, will leave her post heading the BLM as former President Donald Trump settles in for his second term.
The BLM falls under the Department of the Interior, and Trump has already announced that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, an oil industry proponent, will replace Deb Haaland as the Secretary of the Interior. Trump has yet to announce a new BLM director.
As president, Stone-Manning will direct The Wilderness Society’s priorities of advocating for public-land protections across the country. She will also serve as the President of The Wilderness Society Action Fund, which mobilizes grassroots advocacy and civic engagement to protect public lands and waters, according to The Wilderness Society announcement. She succeeds Jamie Williams, who served as President of the organization from 2012 to 2024.
“The Wilderness Society, with its coalition-based approach, has been involved in nearly every public lands victory of the last century, and I am honored to have been selected to lead it into the future,” Stone-Manning said in the release. “Wild places and our public lands are vital to the health of our environment, our communities and our climate. When I start next February, I am eager to work alongside our dedicated staff, partners and supporters to ensure these treasures are protected for all to enjoy.”
In October 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed Stone-Manning as BLM director in a close vote, with Sen. Jon Tester voting in favor and Sen. Steve Daines voting against. But she was the first BLM director to be confirmed in four years, because prior to her, the acting BLM director, William Perry Pendley, was never confirmed during the first Trump administration.
BLM resource management plans, like Forest Service management plans, are written guide agency decisions for 15 to 20 years. During Pendley’s time, a number of BLM plans were changed to favor a high degree of resource extraction on public lands in spite of public input.
Gov. Steve Bullock and the Montana Department of Natural Resources Conservation sued the BLM over the Missoula and Lewistown Office plans. After a judge found the plans had been illegally authorized because Pendley hadn’t been confirmed, Stone-Manning came into office and the plans were rewritten once again without the extraction emphasis.
During her time leading the BLM, Stone-Manning oversaw an agency that put millions of 2022 Inflation Reduction Act dollars into restoration projects on BLM land. Three projects in Montana received a total of $27 million: the Blackfoot-Clark Fork, the Missouri Headwaters, and the Hi-Line Sagebrush Anchor near Fort Peck. Fifteen other landscape projects are scattered throughout nine other Western states.
She also ushered in a new Public Lands rule in April to restore the agency’s multiple-use mandate by allowing federal parcels to be set aside for conservation the same way they’re set aside for industrial activities, such as oil and gas drilling or grazing.
Stone-Manning said the rule would safeguard the health of public lands in three ways: by protecting the best, most intact landscapes; by restoring the lands and waters that need it; and by using science and indigenous knowledge to make land decisions. However, some Western states, including Montana, are suing to stop the rule.
Finally, Stone-Manning has been trying to get Congress to approve as much of the BLM’s fiscal year 2025 budget as possible, after Congress slashed its 2024 budget. But Congress failed to approve a new budget by Sept. 30 and instead passed a continuing resolution to keep the current budget going until Dec. 20.
Congress cut the BLM’s 2024 budget request by $81 million, including cuts to the Recreation Resources Management Program and National Conservation Lands.
That in spite of the fact that the number of people visiting BLM lands has risen 40% since 2020. To try to handle all those people, the BLM released the Blueprint for 21st Century Outdoor Recreation last summer, which, among other goals, outlined how the agency planned to hire more people to better maintain facilities and protect the environment.
The first Trump administration made several changes that hampered the ability of the BLM to do its job. Now, with a Republican Congress and Trump installing a new administration, it’s unlikely that any budget for FY2025 would allocate the money the BLM needs.
Stone-Manning served as a senior advisor to Tester and then served as Chief of Staff to former Governor Steve Bullock until 2017. After that, Stone-Manning served as the National Wildlife Federation associate vice president for Public Lands before she was chosen to lead the BLM.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.