A sign of the times
What image comes to mind when you hear the words "public lands"?
As the Huffington Post noted yesterday, it's probably something like this?
That was the photo used on the front page of the United States Bureau of Land Management until Wednesday. Here's what you'll find today:
Yes, that's a large seam of Wyoming coal. To explain the change, the Huffington Post quotes a spokesperson from the Bureau of Land Management:
Paul R. Ross, U.S. Department of the Interior spokesman, noted that the BLM manages content on its site separately from the DOI. However, he expressed support for the new photo.
“We applaud their creativity in getting their message out,” Ross said in an email. “[The Interior secretary] has made it clear that he will manage our public lands in accordance with President Teddy Roosevelt’s mixed use philosophy, where development of our natural resources is done in a way that balances conservation and public access.” He added that BLM lands account for about 40 percent of coal production in the U.S.
Last month, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed an order to overturn a 2016 moratorium on new coal leases on federal land. He also ordered a review of the agency’s climate change policies in order to “better balance conservation strategies policies with the equally legitimate need of creating jobs for hardworking American families.”
Apparently, neither the Department of the Interior nor the Huffington Post checked Youngs Memorial Cemetery to see if Teddy was spinning in his grave.
Note -- this may be the Roosevelt quote that Ross was referencing: