**BLM's New Director:**

**A Conversation with Pat Shea**

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**BLM National Training Center Telecast**

**August 7, 1997**

This transcript is from the closed-captioning file created during the
telecast

and may contain errors in transcription and omissions of text.

**Announcer**: the Bureau of Land Management Satellite Network Presents
Live from the BLM National Training Center in Phoenix, Arizona‑‑ The New
BLM Director: A Conversation with Pat Shea. And Now, the Host of Your
Program, Gwen Mason.

**Mason**: Hello, and Thank You For Joining Us. It\'s Been about
Three‑and‑a‑half Years since Anyone in BLM Could Claim the Title
Director Without Using Words Such as \"Acting\" or \"Interim\" as Well.
During That Time BLM Certainly Has Not Faltered. Mike Dombeck and Sylvia
Baca Kept Us on a Steady Course to Face the Challenges Our Mandates
Dictate. However, the Nomination and Confirmation Process of a Director
Provides BLM with the Kind of Leadership it must Have To Flourish Long
Term. That Has Finally Happened. In Washington, D. C., on Monday, August
4th, Pat Shea Was Sworn in As the 15th Director of the Bureau of Land
Management. Congratulations, Pat, and Welcome to BLM!

**Shea**: Thank You Very Much, Gwen. It\'s a Real Honor to Be Here and
To Be the Head of an Organization That Really Began In 1791 with the
General Land Office and the leadership of James Madison and Thomas
Jefferson. It\'s Just an Extraordinary Opportunity, and I Look Forward
To Working with You and Everybody in the BLM.

**Mason:** Great. Thanks. Before We Get Started, I Would Like to Mention
That During this Broadcast We Would like to Hear From You All in the
Field. If You Have a Question or Comment for Pat Shea, You Can Send Us a
Fax at Any Time. Use the NTC Teleconference Fax Form Available from Your
Downlink Coordinator. Be Sure to Print Your Question Legibly with a Dark
Marker. Before We Begin Our Conversation With Pat, Secretary Babbitt Has
Prepared Some Remarks for Us to Welcome Pat Shea to the Department and
to BLM.

**Babbitt**: I\'m Pleased to Join With You Today to Welcome Pat Shea as
the New Leader of the Bureau of Land Management. What I Would like to Do
Is Just Share a Few Thoughts with You Briefly as to Why it Is That
President Clinton and I Both Have Such Confidence in Pat and Such High
Expectations of His Incoming Tenure as the Director Of BLM.

First of All, Pat\'s a Westerner, A Resident of Utah. His Career Has
Been Spent in Salt Lake City as a Lawyer, as a Law Professor, Working in
Resource Issues, as a Board Member of the Utah Nature Conservancy, and
Through All of His Career, I Think What Stands Out Most about Pat Is His
Ability to Bring People Together, to Find Consensus Solutions and to
Broaden the Area of Common Understanding. And, of Course, Those Are All
Themes That Are Familiar to All Of You out There on the Landscape over
the Last Four Years. Now, I\'ve Asked Pat to Consider And Think of Just
a Few Important Concepts as He Takes The Helm.

First, I\'ve Encouraged Him, Indeed Admonished Him, to Spend As Little
Time in Washington as Possible. I Know We Have Got to Be There For
Congressional Hearings and All the Budget Stuff, but the Heart and Soul
of this Organization Is out on the Landscape, and I Hope That on an
Average Day I\'ll Be Hearing from Pat Shea, Not in My Office, but
Phoning in from Alaska, Oregon Or Colorado, Arizona, Wherever.

Secondly, I Stressed to Him That What BLM Is about Is People. It\'s Not
about Great Reorganizational Enterprises. I Think We\'ve Got a Solid
Institutional Foundation. We Don\'t Need Any More Large Reorganization
Programs. What We Need to Do Is Solidify And Perfect the Organization
and Turn Increasingly to the People Who Are Obviously at the Very Heart
of Our Enterprise and Mission. Now, I\'ve Also Stressed to Pat That I
Think That Our Job in the Next Four Years Is to Continue To Broaden and
Expand What We\'ve Already Begun, Because I Think We\'re Headed in the
Right Direction.

I Think That the Bureau of Land Management Is Now Seen in the
Conservation Community, in the Resource Community, Indeed by The People
of the United States, As a Very Different Organization, as a Broad‑based
Land Management and Resource Conservation Agency, Which Is Blazing a Lot
of New Ground in Balancing Resource Use and the Long‑term Sustainable
Use of That Resource and Conservation. You Can See it All over the West.
Just to Name a Few: The Escalante National Monument, The Grand Staircase
Escalante National Monument. A Brand‑new Direction for BLM, Making a Big
Statement about Our Ability to Manage Conservation Of the Lands. I Think
the Very Important NPRA/EIS Study Going on in Alaska, the New Ground
That We Have Pioneered with the President\'s Forest Plan in Oregon, the
New Emphasis on Fire Ecology, Think in Southern California of the
Terrific Work That Ed Hasty Has Done down in The California Desert
Ecosystem Studies.

Those Are Just a Few. What They All in Common Is a Vision in Which We
Manage Land Across Lines on Maps in Which We Join with Other Land
Management Agencies, in Which We Begin to See the Unities in the
Landscape. It\'s Called Ecosystem Management By Some, but by Whatever
Name, It\'s a Powerful Idea as We Move Toward Finding this Balance on
The Landscape. I\'m Certain That Pat Is Going to Need All the Help He
Can Get From All of You as We Begin to Move Ahead in the Second Clinton
Administration.

Lastly, What I Would like to Ask Of All of You Is One Very Simple Thing,
and That Is Simply That You Give Him the Kind of Support And Guidance
You Have Unstintingly, Unfailingly Given To Me in the Last
Four‑and‑a‑half Years, and If We Do All this Together, I Think We\'re
Going to Have a Great Run Together. Thanks.

**Mason**: Pat, Some Kind and Supportive Words from the Secretary. I
Know Everyone Is Anxious to Hear from You.

**Shea**: Well, I Appreciate, Again, the Opportunity. Something Tragic
Happened on Tuesday, and So My Comments That I\'ll Be Making to You Are
Going To Be Set Aside Here for a Moment.

On Tuesday, Many of You Know That Ted Overton, a 31‑year Veteran of Our
California Operation Who Had Been a Summer Employee Working on Fires,
Was Killed in a Tragic Rollover of His Truck When He Was Coming Back
from a Fire. He Had Been Supplying Materials to the Forest Service and
Was Returning to Susanville. I Have Sent Mrs. Overton a Note, And I\'d
like to Ask You If You Wouldn\'t Mind to Take a Moment Here. Each of You
in Your Different Jobs Face Many Different Tasks, Indeed Many Dangerous
Tasks, and I Want to Take a Minute Here for 15 Seconds or So and Have a
Moment of Silence for Ted Overton and the Tragedy That Beset He and His
Family. So If You Would Please Join Me.

\[ Pause \]

Thank You. We Have an Enormous Opportunity And a Task, and as We Begin
That Journey Together, I Thought it Was Important for You to Get to Know
Who I Am and Where I Come From. I Think in the West That\'s Often A Very
Real Common Denominator. So I Would like to Introduce You To My Family.

This Is a Digital Photo That We Took at Our Home in Salt Lake Before We
Moved Last Week. Debbie Is My Wife. She Is a Registered Nurse and Just
Recently Completed Her Master\'s Degree in Nursing Administration. She
Is a Delightful Person and Has Been Extraordinarily Helpful In the
Difficulty of Moving.

Michael, the Middle Child with The Blond Hair, Is a 12 Year Old. He
Loves Jets, Jets and Jets. He Is Aspiring to Many Different Roles, but
They All Seem to Resolve Around Aircraft.

Paul, the Younger One, Is 9 Years Old. Both of Them Will Be Entering St.
Luke\'s School the 25th of August. He\'s the Animal‑lover of the Group
and a Great Energy Source For Us All.

We\'re in Our Backyard That Overlooks City Creek Canyon, and That Is
Right Behind the State Capitol, and I Wanted to Show This Photo Because
it Shows a Situation That I Think a Lot of BLM Is Facing, and That Is a
Highly Condensed Urban Population. Salt Lake Is the Fifth‑most Condensed
Population, Urban Population, in the United States, and Yet Immediately
on Its Borders Are Numerous Undeveloped Lands, Many of Which, for
Instance, in Phoenix Or Las Vegas, Are Owned by the BLM, and That\'s One
of the Most Significant Challenges That We Face.

Looking West from the State Capitol, You See the Oak Creek Mountains,
and in 1852 John Muir Did a Biological Survey of Them, And for Many
Years, I Remember As a Child Growing up in Salt Lake, These Hills Were
Absolutely Barren Because There Was a Smelter There That Had Eliminated
All but the Very Smallest Life Forms. In the Last 15 Years, That\'s
Changed. They Now Have 500 Head of Elk That Are There, and Recently This
Last Spring, We Completed a Study Where Kennicot Copper Paid For the
Study to Be Done by the Nature Conservancy of the Fawna Found in the
Mountains. So, It\'s That Kind of Cooperation and Participation of
Divergent Groups That I Want to Try to Bring to the BLM.

I Also Want to Take this Opportunity to Thank the President,
Vice‑president Gore, Who I Met with on Monday, and The Secretary for
Nominating Me To this Position. As I Said in My Introductory Remarks,
this Office Was One That Was Really Created in 1792 After the First
Congress. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Felt Very Strongly That
There Needed to Be a General Land Office Where the Land Resources of the
Then New Federal Government Would Be Managed. And Obviously There Have
Been Different Times When That Has Gone up and Down, but I Do Think That
with Mike and Sylvia We Have Gotten Going in the Right Direction, and I
Hope That We Will Continue in That Way.

I Also Want to Thank Mat Millenbach and Tom Fry. I Refer to Them
Sometimes Affectionately as My Keepers. This Nomination Process Is
Excruciatingly Long, and I Was Prohibited from Having Contact With the
BLM, and I Have to Say That Mat and Tom Had a Very Difficult Job Because
I Think You\'ll Find I\'m a Fairly Active Person and to Be Kept in My
Cocoon Was Not the Easiest Task. So I Do Want to Recognize Their Good
Service.

It Was Interesting in the Actual Confirmation Hearing Before the Senate
Energy and Natural Resource Committee, Senator Domenici of New Mexico
Came in And He Said, \"Mr. Shea, I Want You to Know That You\'re
Undertaking Probably the Most Difficult Task in Government,\" And Indeed
When You Think of Natural Resource Questions, as Many of You Know from
Your Experiences of Your Job Day in And Day Out, There Isn\'t a Single
Controversy in Natural Resources That Doesn\'t Come Across to BLM. So I
Told Senator Domenici There Wasn\'t a Controversy I Hadn\'t Enjoyed and
I Looked Forward to The Challenge. But I Also Stressed to Him, as I Want
to Stress to You, I Will Be Successful If You\'re Successful, And I
Believe You Will Be Successful If I Am Successful. We Do Have to Work in
a Partnership or a Team. I Want to Hear from You. I Want to Work with
You.

I Would like to Say That There Really Are Three Themes, If You Will,
Lenses That I Will Look at the Many Things That Comes Through the
Director\'s Office to Determine Their Priorities.

The First Theme Is of Being a Good Neighbor, and I like to Give the
Example of the People With the BLM in Idaho. When Idaho Had Flooding
this Last Spring, the BLM Task Force There Got Together, Helped the
Neighborhoods, Helped the Cities And Counties, and Saved a Great Deal of
Damage from Occurring. That Was Not Something That Was Ordered from
Washington. It Was Not Something That Was in Any Manual. It Was Simply
Good Neighbor Attitude to Extend a Helping Hand, and I Know in My
Travels Through the Different States, Both as a Private Citizen and Then
as the Nominee, I Can\'t Tell You How Many Times, and I\'m Sure Each of
You Have Had this Experience, Where Somebody Has Been Grousing about the
Federal Government or President Clinton Or Vice‑president Gore or
Secretary Babbitt and Then Said, \"But Those BLM People, They Are All
Right, They\'re Problem Solvers. \" I Think We Have Got That Basis. I
Just Want to Encourage You in Your Area to Think of What You Might Do.
Sometimes it Might Be Helping With a Little League. Sometimes it Might
Be Helping With Recycling Campaigns, Whatever. But Think of How What You
Do Could Be Utilized in a Good Neighborly Approach.

The Second Theme Is to Practice Best Science. By That I Mean, My Second
Degree Is in Genetics and Ornithology, And the One Thing I Learned in
Two Years of Working with Rhode Island Red Chickens and Determining
Their Genetic‑based Color Preference, Which I Am Sure Gwen Would like to
Hear More About, but We Don\'t Have Time Today, Is That Sometimes The
Best Science Is to Realize That Further Scientific Investigation Is Not
Going to Give You Any More Answers. And So I Think One of the Things We
Need to Be Careful about Is Focusing on Our Scarce Resources As to How
We Can Answer Those Questions That Have Answers and Make Sure That We
Formulate Policies in a Timely Manner So That the Customers We Serve and
The Government That We\'re Part Of Function in an Effective and
Efficient Way. And So the Second Theme Is of Best Science.

The Third Theme Is of Multiple Use. You\'ll Recall That Secretary
Babbitt Talked about Ecosystem Management in His Introductory Remarks to
Me, and I Take That In the Context of the Charter, The Federal Land
Management Policy Act, FLPMA, Tells Us That We Are Obligated to Conserve
the Land, Which I Consider a High, High Priority, but at the Same Time
to Facilitate Development. Now, Some of the Critics, and Particularly
the Media, Would Have Us Believe That It\'s an Either/or Proposition,
Either You Have Development or You Have Conservation. But I like to Cite
What\'s Happened in Eastern Oregon with The Forest Lands There. In Many
Instances the Best Conservation Program Has Resulted in a Positive
Development Program as Well. Sometimes, Particularly in Wilderness
Areas, We Are Going To Have to Have a Strong Line That Says it Is
Conservation, And There Will Not Be Development. But, on the Other Hand,
There Are Other Times When I Think Development Is Perfectly Consistent
as Long as it Respects the Ecosystem Management That We\'re Aspiring To.

So Those Three Themes Are Going To Be Lenses That I Will Look at Things
Through, That Is: Is it a Good Neighbor Policy? Is it Going to Be the
Best Science Policy? And Will it Facilitate Multiple Use, Meaning
Ecosystem Management? And I Think Those Three Things Will Help Me And,
in Turn, I Think, Help You Decide How We Are Going to Proceed in Our
Respective Tasks Within the BLM. Now, I Also Want to Have Three
Particular Projects. Mike Dombeck Had the Ingenious Idea of Talking
about the Health Of the Land, Making Sure That Wildlife and Endangered
Species Were Protected. I Certainly Am Dedicated to That Same Principle
and Will Be Devoting Much of My Time to Working on Maintaining and
Promoting the Health of the Land. But My Thesis Is That If You Don\'t
Have a Healthy Organization, You\'re Not Going To Facilitate or You\'re
Not Going to Achieve That Goal. So My Number One Project, and This Is
Where I Need Your Help And Your Suggestions, Is to Have A Healthy
Organization.

I in Washington, for Instance, Am Going to Be Moving from the Main
Interior Building. I Will Have a Director\'s Office There for Ceremonial
Type Meetings, but Day in and Day Out, I Will Be Functioning from The
\"L\" Street Office Because That\'s Where the People Who Do The Work
with the BLM in Washington Are. And I Want to Hear from You Again on How
I Can Take Actions As a Director with You and with The State to Improve
the Relationships, the Environment That You Work In, So That We Can Have
a Healthy Organization.

A Good Example in Washington, on Monday When I Met with the Washington
Office, I Had Called For a Meeting on the 2nd and 3rd Of September, and
One of the People from the ADE Group Was Not Able to Attend Because That
Was the First Day of School for Her Child, and She Said, \"What Should I
Do?\" I Said, \"To Me, the Highest Priority Is Your Children and Family.
So Don\'t Worry. We Will Find Ways of Working Around Your Absence. We
Would like You There, but Obviously That\'s a Higher Priority.\" So
Understand from the Director\'s Perspective, It\'s Important That You
Have a Healthy Family, a Healthy Personal Situation, but Also Know That
I Expect That You Will Be Putting in a Full Day\'s Work On the Many
Different Tasks That Cross Your Desk. So the Number One Priority Project
for Me Is Improving the Health of the Organization.

Second, We Live in an Exciting Time. I Mean, My Ability to Communicate
with as Many People From the BLM as We Are Today by Means of Television
and Satellite Is an Example of Something That Just a Few Years Ago Would
Not Have Been Possible. I Think You\'ll Be Seeing More Innovative Kind
of Programs Using Television, Using the Internet, but We Also Within BLM
Have a Big Project. Many of You, I\'m Sure, Have Had Or Heard about
ALMRS, Have Had Training in ALMRS.

My Project Is Going to Be Work With Gayle Gordon and the People In
Denver to Make Sure That We Get ALMRS on Line and That It\'s
Functioning, but I Need Your Commitment To, You Know, Bear With Us and
Get it Done. We Will Have it Working, We Will Have it Functioning, and I
Think ‑‑ I Was Just Here in Phoenix Yesterday Going Through Some of The
Startup That Will Be Introduced in New Mexico and Colorado and Was
Amazed, Being The Old Law Person and Having Used Many BLM Offices, at
How Much More Effective I Could Have Been Had I Had the ALMRS
Technology. We Will Get That Working, and I Do Want Your Dedication to
Assisting Us on That.

The Third Project Is to Work With Tom Fry and Bob Armstrong, The
Assistant Secretary for Lands and Minerals, in Examining And Perhaps
Tightening down a Bit the Audit and Inspection Function of Our Oil, Gas
and Mineral Side of Our Operation. It Has Been Enormously Successful,
but I Think There Are Some Areas There That We Can Use Bob\'s Experience
as the Former Land Commissioner of Texas and Tom\'s Experience in Texas
as Well to Really Make That Be Another Star for the BLM.

Those Are the Three Projects\... The Health of the Organization, ALMRS
and the Inspection and Audit Function in Oil, Gas and Minerals That I
Will Be Focusing On. There Are Other Very Important Ones, the Riparian
Way, the Wild And Scenic Rivers, the Wild Horse and Burro Program, That
I Will Obviously Be Involved in And Will Be Available to Be Involved In.
But I Look Forward to Working With You on Those.

I Want to Show You One Last Slide from Salt Lake. This Is the City Creek
Canyon That Looks up the Canyon. It\'s a 15,000‑acre Park Now That I
Started with the Mayor of Salt Lake in 1983. It Is Overwhelmed with
Visitors. We Are Actually Beginning to Have to Make Some Plans about
Trail Control. We\'ve Actually Had the Salt Lake City Police Have to
Come in and Give Speeding Tickets to the Bikers as They Came down the
Canyon. Normal Sort of Problems I\'m Sure Some of You Have Faced in Your
Respective Jurisdiction.

But It\'s a Place for Me That Is Tranquil, and I Mentioned at the
Beginning the Tragedy with Ted Overton, but in Hearing about His Death,
it Reminded Me of a Poem by Robert Frost Called \"The Tuft of Flowers,\"
and the Last Stanza of \"The Tuft of Flowers\" Is Something I Think
Applies to The Situation We\'re Going in Given How Far Apart We Are in
Terms of Our Geographic Location. We Will See That Here Just in a
Minute, the Slide of the Western United States Where Almost All Of the
BLM Land Is Located, and Then Specifically Where Our Jurisdictions Are
in Each of Those States. But the Last Stanza of That Poem Says That
\"People Work Together Whether They Work Together or Apart,\" and I
Would Hope That We Would Leave Here Today with a Renewed Spirit of
Working Together, Whether We Are Together or Apart, and That You Would
Feel Free in Working with Me to Come up with Suggestions.

As Secretary Babbitt Said, and As Vice‑president Gore Said on Monday,
the Solutions to Many of The Problems That We as an Organization Are
Facing Are in Your Hands. You Know What Would Work in Moab. You Know
What Would Work in Battle Mountain. You Know What Would Work in Alaska.
And, Therefore, Make Sure That I As Director Have Worked Directly With
You in Empowering You in Working with Your Local Coalitions of City,
County, State Officials to Come up with Solutions. Obviously We Have a
National Mandate, a National Charter, to Make Sure That the Legacy We
Are Creating Is One We\'re Proud Of, But You Are the People That Are
Going to Make That Difference, And I Look Forward to Working With You on
That.

One Final Announcement Is That If I Were Here Today to Say, Guess What,
We\'re Going to Have Pat Shea\'s 1997 Plan of Reorganization, Many of
You Would Get up from Your Seats, Run to the Door, Find a Ledge, And Try
to Jump off of It. You\'ve Been Reorganized Too Many Times and We Will
Not Have Reorganizations. Now, Some of the Plans That Have Been Put into
Practice Now Need To Be Brought to Closure. I Certainly Will Be
Following Through on That. But it Will Not Be a Plan of Reorganization.
Now, I Have Asked Nina Hatfield And Pete Culp to Co‑chair a Task Force
on How the Washington Office Can Better Bridge into The Work Activities
of the Respective State Offices or of The Fire Center and the Other
Separate Operations. They Will Be on a Very Tight Time Schedule. They
Started Meeting on Wednesday, and They Will Have a Report to Me by the
25th, and I Will Let You Know by Both Internet and by E‑mail What the
Results of That Study and Task Force Are and What Parts We Are Going to
Implement.

I Think There Have Been a Lot of Great Ideas Generated. I Think There
Have Been Enormous Number of Studies Done, but What You Are Going to See
with Pat Shea as the Director Is Follow Through. We Are Going to
Implement. We Are Going to Follow Through. And I\'m Not Afraid of Making
a Decision, but I Want to Have the Best Information Brought Forward By
You So That the Decision Will Be Timely and Well Based. So, Gwen, Those
Are My Thoughts. I Really Look Forward to Questions and Answers to These
Problems That We\'re Facing. I Do Want to Acknowledge That The Utah
Starzz Lost Last Night, And I Lost My Bet, But, Denise, I\'m Not Bitter
about That. I Think it Was a Bit of a Setup. But Denise Does That as the
State Director in Arizona, and We Just Have to Deal with That.

**Mason**: You Mentioned the Importance of Follow Through. So If You
Lost the Bet, We Can Only Assume You Will Be Following Through. In the
Spirit of Working Together, We Have a Stack of Questions That Have Come
In. And Again, We Want to Thank You In the Field. Gene Campbell from
Dickenson, South Dakota, Has a Question on The Oil and Gas Inspection
and Enforcement Program, and You Mentioned it as One of Your Projects.
What Is Your Position on the Transfer of the I&E Program to The States
in Regard to the State\'s Proposals to Assume Some Of Those
Responsibilities?

**Shea**: I Think It\'s Very Important as a Federal Agency With a
Federal Charter That We Establish, If You Will, the Standard by Which
Any State Project Would Be Judged or Any Proposal to Assume Those
Responsibilities. If the People in the Field and The Supervisors That
Are Working With Them Conclude That a State Program Is on a Long‑term
Basis ‑‑ this Is Not Just a Six‑month Project, Not Just a Year Project,
but on a Long‑term Basis Would Meet Those Minimum Requirements, I Think
There Is Much Merit to Consider Having a State Assumption of Those
Responsibilities.

My Concern, and I Say this with Particular Experience in Utah, Is That
Many Times There Will Be A Very Favorable Impression Left, but Then the
Follow Through Doesn\'t Happen and the Standards Are Allowed to
Deteriorate, and the Assumption Of the Responsibility Doesn\'t Work. So
If You Will, I Think I Have a Healthy Skepticism about What\'s Being
Promoted There. I Certainly Am Willing with Your Help, Gene, to Examine
Those and See What We Might Be Able to Do, But Unless I Feel 90% Comfort
Level, Which Is a Very High Standard by My Mind, That in Five Years the
Standards That We Have Established, That We Are Obligated to Have under
Federal Statute, Are Going to Be Maintained, We Are Not Going to Be
Turning it over. However, If There Are Instances Where There\'s Proper
Funding Done, Then I Believe it Would Be An Appropriate Step.

**Mason**: Thank You. I Am Told That You Have a Well‑wisher on the
Phone. Larry Hamilton, Our State Director in Montana, Is on the Line.
Larry?

**Hamilton**: Hi, Gwen.

**Mason**: How Are You?

**Hamilton**: Good. Pat, this Is Larry Hamilton, and I\'m Here in
Montana.

**Shea**: So My Mother Got to You Last Night?

**Hamilton**: I\'m Not Sure. But We\'re in the Process of Touring Joel
Kaplan Around Here, Montana. He\'s Staff Director for the House
Appropriations Committee.

**Shea**: Tell Joel That I Have a High Priority to Meet with Him And to
Go over with His Keen Eye Some of the Projects That We\'re Talking
about.

**Hamilton**: Ok. That\'s Terrific. That\'s One of the Questions He\'s
Asked Me, Quite Frankly.

**Shea**: Now, Has He Caught Any Fish?

**Hamilton:** Not Yet, but We\'re Working Real Hard on That. I May Rent
Some Scuba Gear Here Tonight to Make Sure He Gets One.

**Shea**: Tell Him My 9‑year‑old Son Paul Who Is a Big Fisherman Has
Already Found a Pay‑for‑fishing Place in Virginia. So If He Fails in
Montana, We\'ll Take Him There.

**Hamilton**: Hey, That\'s a Deal. The Other Thing I Want to Do Is
Welcome You to the Bureau on Behalf of All the Field Managers. We\'re
Real Delighted to Have You Confirmed and Looking Forward to Working with
You. One Thing That\'s Been Kind of Interesting Here Today Is Front‑page
Headlines All over Montana Some of the Changes That Are Being Made in
the Forest Service, and One of the Questions I\'m Getting from Some Of
the Field People Is Whether Or Not Our Priorities Perhaps Are Going to
Change or Are We Going to Be Looking at a Shakeup Similar to What the
Forest Service Is Going Through?

**Shea:** No, I Don\'t Have Any Intention of Making the Kind of Shakeups
That Are Going on in The Forest Service. Mike Dombeck and I Talk Once a
Week. Secretary Babbitt and Secretary Glickman Have Been Very Strong In
Their Encouragement for Not Just Mike and I but Also Bob Stanton, the
New Head of the National Parks, and Jamie Clark, Who Is Head of Fish &
Wildlife, To Have Some Collaboration, to Try, for Instance, to Come up
With Some Common Terminology So A Customer of the Forest Service
Doesn\'t Find That There\'s a Different Set of Terms That Are Used by
BLM. But I Think You Will Find with Me, like I Said, That the
Reorganizations That Are Underway Will Be Completed, but I\'m Not Going
to Take Any New Initiatives, and Quite Frankly, And That\'s One of the
Reasons Joel Is So Key, I Intend to Be Fairly Aggressive Within the
Confines of the Department to Make Sure That Our Budget Actually
Improves.

I Think There Are Many Instances Where There Are Particular Programs
That Would Have a Net Positive Effect on the Federal Government and the
Federal Budget, and I Want to Pursue Those. So I Think the Answer to
Your Question Is, No, There Won\'t Be The Kind of Changes That Are Going
On. Now, I Do Recognize and Have Visited a Couple of the Trading Posts,
and I Think Mike Is Very Interested in Making Sure That We Continue the
Collaborative Effort That We Have on Trading Post Operations. And I Know
the Secretary When He Was in Florida and Again When He Was in the West
Kept Commenting To Me How Nice it Felt to Have On One Shoulder a Badge
of the BLM and on the Other Shoulder a Badge of the Forest Service.
There Is Not Going to Be, You Know, a Merger. I Think There Has Been a
Lot of People Talking about That. But I Do Think a Recognition That in
Many Instances There Are Collaborative Opportunities That We Need to
Take Advantage of Is Where I Want to Go. And, Larry, I Want to Mention
That I Am Looking Forward to Your and Al Wright\'s Report. A Lot of What
I Want to Do Will Originate with People with Your Experience and Wisdom
to Tell Me These Are Some Things That Need To Be Done. So I Do Look
Forward to Your Report.

**Hamilton**: Great. Well, We\'re Looking Forward to Meeting with You
Here in a Couple Weeks. And We\'re Delighted You\'re Doing This Video
Teleconference. That\'s an Excellent Wait to Get Things Started off on
the Right Foot.

**Shea**: Well, I Appreciate It, And Do Make Sure Joel Has a Good Time.

**Hamilton**: I\'ll Do It.

**Shea**: All Right. Thanks.

**Hamilton:** Bye.

**Mason**: You Have to Promise Not to Get Homesick, but Kate Kitchell Is
on the Phone from Moab, Utah. Kate, Are You There?

**Kitchell**: Welcome to the Bureau Of Land Management, Mr. Shea!

**Shea**: Hi, Kate. I Just Want to Know If I Can Come down the Colorado
If I Get Out There ‑‑

**Kitchell:** Hey, You Beat Me to The Punch. That Was One of the Points
I Wanted to Bring Up, and That Is, Most of All on the Behalf of All The
Field Managers and on the Ground Employees of the Bureau, We Want to
Extend an Open‑ended Invitation to You.

**Shea**: Well, Tell Ken Slight Over at Pack Creek Ranch That I\'m
Coming and He Still Owes Me A Few Horseback Rides.

**Kitchell**: I Will Do That. We\'re Really Excited about Your Being on
Board and Confirmed as Our Director. You Know, We\'ve Been Waiting for
The Stability for Some Time. So We Welcome You Aboard. Frankly, since
Your Nomination Was Announced, I\'ve Got to Admit We Have Been Asking
Around Utah A Little Bit about You, and Everything That I\'ve Heard Has
Been Very Positive. We Really Look Forward to All The Attributes You Are
Bringing To the Job.

A Couple Questions for You. I Will at Least Start with One. It\'s Kind
of an Open‑ended One. You Know We\'re in a Period of Balancing the
Federal Budget and For BLM That Translates into Either a Flat or a
Declining Budget for BLM And, Thus, No Really Substantial Increases in
BLM Staffing. And in Contrast with That, the Environment BLM Is
Operating in Gets More and More Complex at an Accelerated Rate. We Have
More and More Diverse Demands from Recreation Booms to Open‑pit Mining,
and it Seems That in Many Cases, No Matter How Much Effort We Put into
Trying to Build Consensus, Many Decisions End up Sort of Hung up In
Litigation. From Your Perspective, What Are The Approaches or the Tools
That BLM Can Apply to Resolve Conflicts and Build Consensus in Such a
Budget‑constrained Yet Complex Decision‑making Environment?

**Shea**: Kate, Let Me Try to Answer Your Question in Three Different
Parts.

The First Part Goes to the Budget Constraints. Budget Director Frank
Reins Is a Classmate of My from England, And I Certainly Intend, with
The Secretary\'s Permission, to Be Lobbying Him Fairly Directly on Some
Budget Proposals, but I Do Think If You Look at the Effect Of Those
Budget Restraints over The Last Few Years on the Demographic Profile of
the BLM, We\'ve Had over a Thousand People Take Early Retirement. So
Enormous Amounts of Experience and Expertise Have Gone Away. I Hope We
Can Find Ways That We Might Be Able to Bring Some of Those People Back
on a Volunteer Basis or Something That Would Complement Their New
Status. But We Also Have Not Had New Employees, as You Point Out, and So
We\'ve Got a Group of Seasoned Veterans Who Are Very Good and
Experienced, but They Do Not Necessarily Have the Help That They\'ve Had
in the Past, And, Frankly, One of the Challenges I Think over the next
Two or Three Years Is to Figure out How We Can Begin to Bring New People
in At the Starting Level Within the Budget Restraints That We Have. So I
Will Be Looking to the Planning Staff and to Your Assistance in Figuring
out How We Get Intern Programs Going and How We Begin That Pipeline
Again Of Getting New People into the BLM.

Second, We Will, in My Judgment, See Some Specific Programs I Think
Actually Improve. We Are in the midst of Having Some Discussions, Again
as I Said Earlier, During My Nomination I Was Restrained, but I Was
Given the Freedom to Talk With Other People Outside the BLM, and I Think
There Are Some Opportunities There That I Will Be Pursuing, Using Mat
and Tom Again as a Strong Sounding Board. And, Kate, I\'m Glad That in
Your Conversations in Utah That You Didn\'t Talk to My 4th Grade Teacher
or My 10th Grade Teacher Because You Might Have Gotten a Different
Report. I Seem to Have Had a Few Problems of Discipline in Those
Classes, but I Survived.

I Have for the Last Six Years Participated in an Alternative Dispute
Resolution Program, ADR, And the Beauty of Mediation or Arbitration Is
You Do Not Get Into the Cost and the Contentiousness of Litigation Where
It\'s Sort of Whoever Makes The Last Thrust with Their Sword Wins, but
Instead, at the End of A Successful Mediation, You Actually Are Able To,
You Know, Have People Still Working Together. So I Anticipate, and
Indeed, Last Friday I Called Governor Levitt, I Wanted Him to Be My
First Governor I Spoke To, And We Talked about Some Very Specific Things
That I Am Going To Be Working with Mat On, and One of His Key Staff
People to See If We Can\'t Some up with Some ADRs. Specifically, I
Think, on Some Of the Appraisal Questions That The School Trust Lands
Have Raised Would Lend Themselves to That Kind of Approach. So with Me,
I Think You\'ll Have A Creative Effort at Using ADR.

**Mason**: Kate, Thanks So Much For Calling In. I Do Want to Take
Marilyn Johnson\'s Call from Eastern States. Marilyn, Thank You for
Holding On.

**Johnson**: Good Morning, Director Shea. How Are You?

**Shea**: Good, Marilyn. How Are You?

**Johnson**: I Would like to Take This Opportunity to Thank You For Your
Warm Visit You Had with Us Here in Eastern States on Monday Morning, and
Thank You For Making One of Your First Official Acts Making That Being A
Visit to a Field Office.

**Shea**: I\'m Glad to Have Done It and I Was Glad You Were Willing to
Serve on That Task Force. I Should Tell All the Viewers If You Have
Specific Recommendations, You Ought to Call Marilyn.

**Johnson**: I Appreciate That, Director Shea. I Would like for You to
Describe For Us Your Management Style.

**Shea**: I Would Say That it Is Open and Cooperative. I\'m Not
Comfortable with Titles. I like Informality, and I like The Ability to
Go to Where the Solutions Are. Secretary Babbitt in His Meeting With the
Four of Us Who He Swore Into Office Was Very Direct That His Office
Operated in an Interactive Manner, and I Know That Carol, Who Has Been
Working As My Executive Assistant, this Morning Said to Me, \"You\'re
Certainly Keeping Us Busy.\" Well, That\'s My Style.

I Have a Mind That, I Think, Works Reasonably Well and That Is Always
Thinking of Something New and Different and Will Be Putting out a Lot of
Ideas. Some of Those Ideas Won\'t Work, And That\'s Where You Need to
Say To Me, \"Hey, Sorry, We\'ve Been There, We\'ve Tried That, it
Doesn\'t Work.\" But If You Do Say That, I Would Suggest That You Need
to Come Back with an Alternative or a Defense of What Exists There and
Say \"No, That Program Really Does Work.\" But I\'m Also Enormously
Dedicated to Public Service, Not Just in the Context of BLM.

Marilyn, When I Was at the Eastern States Office, We Talked About the
Program That Was in Anacostia Park. I Am Going to Be Going over There to
See That and Work with It. But I Think Those Kind of Outreach
Opportunities Are Ones Where We as People of the BLM Can Really Work on
Having the Public More Aware of How Much We Contribute to Our Respective
Communities. And So on Those Kind of Projects And Programs, I Will Be
Working With You and Seeing What We Can Do.

My Final Point on My Style Is I Am ‑‑ When I Have Met with President
Clinton, I Served on The President\'s Commission on Aviation Safety and
Security, And We Had a Number of Occasions Where We Were Able to Get
Together and Talk about Different Parts of That Program, But Also
Government in General, And I Am as Dedicated as He Is To Making Sure
That the BLM Reflects the Population of the Country, and I Think Some of
the Programs That We\'ve Had to Diversify Are Ones That Will Have My
Strong Support as Director. I Was First Introduced in Washington as an
Intern in Senator Moss\' Office from Utah. I Want to See Some Intern
Programs Come on Line, but I Don\'t Want Intern Programs If at The End
of Their Internship There Isn\'t Something for a Career They Can Do, and
That\'s Where We Were Talking Earlier About a Career Path. We Need to
Have Some Predictable Markers So That People Can Once Again Begin to
Build Their Career on a Basis of Knowledge Rather than Simple Chance or
Luck Opportunity. So Those Are a Few Ideas, Marilyn, but I Enjoyed
Meeting You the Other Day and Really Do Look Forward to Working with
You. Springfield Is Not That Far Away From Washington and You\'ll Be
Seeing Me.

**Johnson**: Thank You, Director Shea.

**Shea**: Thank You.

**Mason**: Pat, the Secretary Talked about Your Needing to Hit The Trail
and Get out There on The Ground, and You\'ve Mentioned It Yourself. What
Do You Hope to Accomplish During Your Visits to Each State?

**Shea**: Well, I Have a Natural Curiosity. My Favorite Part of School
Was Field Trips, Not Surprisingly, And I Have to Say That When I\'ve Sat
down with the Scheduling People and Looked at My Schedule, I Am
Dedicated to Being in Washington Friday Through Monday. I Am Not Going
To, as Director, Forego the Opportunity of Seeing Michael and Paul Grow
Up, and Debbie Has Informed Me That She Is Going to Be a Strict Task
Master of Keeping That Pledge. But Tuesdays Through Thursdays, And Other
Occasions, for Instance, I Talked to Tom Allen, And I Am Going to Be
Coming to Alaska in September for Nine Days.

There\'s a Previous Commitment to Speak in Montreal on a Different
Subject Matter. I Will Want to See What You Want Me to See. Denise
Yesterday, for Instance, Here in Phoenix Took Us out to Lake Pleasant
Where There Was an Enormous Opportunity with the Maricopa County, with
the Game & Fish Commission of Arizona, With the Bureau of Reclamation To
Work on Some Projects. She Was Showing Me and Marlin, Her Assistant,
Were Showing Me How There Needed to Be a Consolidation of BLM Lands in
Exchange with Other Entities So That We Could Have in Future
Generations, Future Decades, a Consolidated Group of Properties, and I
Look Forward To That.

In That Curious Way, I Want to See Where You Have Problems, and I
Particularly Want Each of You To Understand If There Is Ever An Occasion
When an Elected Official, Be They City, County Or State, Abuses You
Because You\'re a BLM Employee or You\'re A Federal Employee, Let Me
Know. That Is Not Acceptable Behavior. We Will Not Accept the Idea That
Somebody Who Is a City Council Person or a Mayor or a County
Commissioner or Even a Governor Has the Right in Any Way to Intimidate
or to Say Anything Negative about You. If That Happens, I Want to Hear
About It, Because We\'re Going to Put a Stop to It. We Have a Very Proud
Tradition, And I Want to Continue in That Proud Tradition. But I Also
Love Camping, Horseback Riding. I Was Very Disappointed, Gwen, I Should
Add Quickly, Yesterday That You Had Not Gotten a Jet Ski on Lake
Pleasant. And the Flight That We Took Was An Enormous Success. We Saw
Six Different Wilderness Areas. We Saw One Where I Think There Is Going
to Be a Future Visit Where Mike Dombeck and I Will Come out Together
Because it Involves Both Forest Service Land and BLM Land. So Those Kind
of Things Are Good. I Do like to Get Some Sleep, and I Do like to Have
Some Quiet. I Also Love to Take Long Walks Early in the Morning.

It Seems to Me Sunrise Is a Special Kind of Time, and So Whether It\'s a
Horseback Ride in Idaho or a Hike, Kate, in Moab, I Love Doing That, and
I Also Love Hiking, and There\'s Not a River I Wouldn\'t Enjoy Going
Down. So I\'m Going to Be Naturally Active and in the Appropriate Way I
Will Be Bringing Debbie or Michael and Paul with Me Where I Will Pay
Their Way, but We Will Take Advantage of Those Opportunities as Well.

**Mason**: Great. Well, I Would Advise the Public Affairs Chiefs to
Start Examining Jet Ski Possibilities For When Pat Comes to Town. From
Nevada We\'ve Got a Question On the Resource Advisory Councils. RACs
Were First Given the Tasks Of Developing Standards and Guidelines for
Rangeland Management, and Now That the Rangeland Task Has Been
Completed, Pat, I\'m Wondering What Issues Do You See the Resource
Advisory Councils Taking Up?

**Shea**: Well, I Think We Have Had Great Success in Many States. There
Are Two States Where We Are Still Struggling, and I Will Be Devoting
Some of My Time in Seeing If We Can\'t Come to Resolution.

I Think the RACs Are Very Consistent with Secretary Babbitt,
Vice‑president Gore and President Clinton\'s Approach to Try to Get
Local Decision Making Going on and Being Facilitated, Recognizing That
We Have a Federal Obligation to Make Sure That Federal Statutes and
Federal Regulations Are Complied With. So I Do Think That the RACs Are
An Important Tool. I Hope in My Different Visits to Each of the States,
Which I\'ll Be Doing over the next Three Months, I\'ll Be Able to Meet
With Some of the RACs, or at Least Some of the Members of the RACs, and
I Think There Is a Great Opportunity There.

Let Me Clarify One Thing. Larry Asked Me from Montana About
Reorganizations. I Haven\'t Reviewed the Full Details of What the Forest
Service Has Announced Today, but I Do Understand, and We Will Be Making
next Week Some Announcements Regarding State Directors, and You Should
Understand That Those Will Be Made. I Have Been Involved with the
Process Once I Was Confirmed, And the Secretary and Sylvia and I Have
Talked Extensively. It\'s Been a Very Difficult Thing Being in Phoenix
and Yet Modern Communications Being What it Is, We Have Had Some Very
Good Communications. So I Don\'t Want My Answer to Larry\'s Question
about There Being No Major Changes as Is Happening in the Forest Service
To Say That We Will Not Be Making Those Announcements Many. We Will Be
Making Those Announcements next Week.

**Mason**: Thank You for That Clarification. We Have Another Question
from Oregon. Pat, What Is Your Commitment to Firefighter Safety?

**Shea**: Well, as We Saw with Ted Overton\'s Tragic Death, Firefighting
Is an Integral Part Of Natural Resource Management. I Look Forward to
the Time When We Are Able to Better Integrate Fire Management and the
Use of Fire as a Natural Resource Tool Than We Presently Do. I Think
It\'s One of Those Subjects Where People Say, Well, Yeah, this Is a
Great Idea, but ‑‑ Why Don\'t You Apply it in the Other State? Don\'t
Put it Here. Or in California We\'re Running Into a Very Direct Problem
with Air Pollution, That the Controlled Burns That Are Being Proposed,
Which Are Very Necessary to Reduce the Biomass That Might Be Otherwise
Put in a Wildfire, Can\'t That Done Because of Air Pollution Problems.

I Do Plan to Go to Idaho, and I\'ve Talked to Les Rosencranz on The
Telephone and Will Be Working on That. Tom Fry and I Have Both Told Les
That We Are Going to Go Through His Three‑day Training Program. I Know
Each Time I Have Talked To the Secretary in His Office He Has His Fire
Bag and Is Ready To Go at a Moment\'s Notice, and I Certainly Want to Do
That. I Also Want to Make it Clear, Though, and I Think That\'s One Of
the Things That Came out of The Tragedy in Colorado, Is That The People
Who Have Been at the Fire Center, Who Have Been Trained There, Who Are
in That Chain of Command Are the Experts, and You Will Not See Me And
You Should Not See Others Who Have Not Had That Kind of Training Trying
to Take Charge Of a Situation. The Handoff from the Local to The
District and to the National Is Always a Delicate Question, But I Have
Very Strong Belief That Les and His People Need to Call the Shots on
Those, and the First Priority as in Any Project BLM Undertakes Is We
Need to Make Sure That Our Personnel Are Safe. We Do Not Want to Have
Tragedies Like Ted\'s Happening at All, If Possible.

**Mason**: Thank You. We Have Got One Final Question. This Came in from
Eastern States. Pat, under Your Leadership Will BLM Continue to Follow
the Blueprint for the Future?

**Shea**: You Know, I\'ve Read the Blueprint for the Future and Then
Obviously the Strategic Plan, and to Me They Are Tremendous Documents
Because They Give You an Overview, If You Will, of the Forest, of the
Whole Landscape That BLM Has to Deal with. When People in Utah Have
Asked Me about the BLM and They\'ve Been Specifically Asking About,
\"Well, Aren\'t You Going to Be Tangled up Entirely about the Grand
Staircase?\" I Have Said That\'s 1.7 Million Acres and BLM Has over 370
Million Acres of Surface Land, 550 Million Acres of Subsurface Or
Mineral Estate. So That\'s a Very Small Portion Of It.

I\'ve Also Said in the Context of The Grand Staircase That it Is Very
Important That the Team That\'s in Place Continue to Work. They Are
Doing Extraordinary Job. And Bill Lamb and I Have Talked A Number of
Times, and I Have Complete Confidence That They Are Moving Entirely in
the Right Direction. I Have Made it Clear to Them, I\'ve Made it Clear
to the Secretary and to the Vice‑president. I\'m Available to Help. I\'m
Available to Make Tough Calls. But I Expect Them to Take the Leadership
Role and Let Me Work With Them.

I Think That the Leadership That Will Come from the Director\'s Office
Will Be Very User Friendly, That People Will Find That I Am Open and
Approachable. When I Have an E‑mail Address ‑‑ We Are Still Working on
That ‑‑ I Will Encourage You to Send in Your E‑mails, Make Telephone
Calls. If You\'re in Washington, Make Visits. I Intend to Ask for a
Greater Rotation of People from the Field to Washington So They Can
Experience Firsthand Dealing With Congress and Congressional Staff, and
Then Have Some People In Washington Go out in the Field and Understand
Some of the Problems That They Have to Deal With. But I Really Do Look
Forward to Working on Those Projects.

**Mason**: Well, We Are Just Delighted That You\'re Here, and If You
Have Any Further Thoughts? Otherwise, We\'ll Let You off the Hook Here.

**Shea**: Again, I Will Be Glad To Get out of the TV Studio, and I\'m
Going to Visit the National Training Center, Which Is an Extraordinary
Facility. Gary and Chip Have Done a Great Job, and I Encourage People to
Think of How They Can Use this Facility. Denise Is Going to Take Me to
The State Office, and We\'re Going to Meet with the People at The State
Office.

Next Week, I Will Be Traveling To New Mexico and Colorado, and The Week
after That We\'ll Be Going to California. So It\'s Going to Be a Very
Busy Time for Me, but I Hope You Will Keep the Three Themes in Mind That
We Are Going to Be Good Neighbors, That We Are Going to Practice Best
Science, and That We Are Going to Have Multiple Use as a Very
Centerpiece, Meaning Ecosystem Management.

The Projects I Will Be Focusing On Are the Health of the Organization,
ALMRS and the Inspection and Audit Function of Oil, Gas and Minerals.
But Most Importantly, I Want You To Know of My Dedication to You
Individually to Make this Organization an Organization That We Together
Can Be Proud Of, and Whether We\'re Together Or Apart, Our Results Are
Going To Be Judged Together, and I Solicit Your Help and I Appreciate
Your Time Today. Thank You, Gwen.

**Mason**: Appreciate It. That Concludes Our Conversation With Pat Shea.
I Would like to Thank Everyone Who Faxed in Questions and Comments to
Us. We Really Appreciate Your Participation. I\'d Also like to Remind
Our Downlink Coordinators to Have All Viewers Sign the Attendance Roster
and Fax it into the Training Center Immediately After Today\'s Show.

I\'d like to Mention Some Upcoming National Training Center Satellite
Events ‑‑ On August 20th, the Inspection And Enforcement Program Will
Present a Workshop on Preparing The Fy‑98 Inspection Matrix.

On September 11th, an IRM and ALMRS Forum Will Be Telecast to Provide
Everyone an Update on Our Modernization Efforts.

A Two‑day Course on Mining Claim Use and Occupancy Management Will Be
Broadcast on September 17th and 18th.

On October 8th, a Presentation On the New Travel Regulations Will Be
Provided for All BLM Employees.

A Telecast on October 30th Will Discuss Changes in Oil and Gas Policy.
And on November 19th, the National Training Center Will Broadcast a
Seminar as Part of The Second International Conference on Natural
Resources And Cultural Heritage. This Interactive Telecast, Which Will
Also Be Transmitted to Central and South America, Will Be Simulcast in
Spanish.

To Help Your Office Participate In Future NTC Broadcasts, See The BLM
Satellite Downlink Guide, or Visit the NTC Home Page on the World Wide
Web. NTC\'s Internet Address Is www.ntc.blm.gov.

Transcripts of this Program and Other National Training Center
Broadcasts Are Available on the Home Page. For Information on Upcoming
NTC Distance Learning Telecasts as Well as Traditional Courses, Call the
Training Center at 602‑906‑5500. Or, Again, Visit the NTC Home Page.

In the Weeks and Months Ahead, Pat Shea Will Be in the Field Meeting
Many of You and Seeing Firsthand the Hard Work So Many BLMers Are Doing
Every Day. All of Us Are Enthusiastic in Welcoming Pat to BLM as We
Continue to Work Together in Managing Our Public Lands.

This transcript made possible by:

Closed Caption Productions

Phoenix, Arizona

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