While the agency isn't huge, it's not a skinny arm of government either. Still, for an institution with so much responsibility and such significant congressional allocations, it is relatively unknown to a majority of the public. Former Director of the BLM Pat Shea, who last November was moved to another Interior Department position, tacitly acknowledged such alliances. Most observers say Shea failed to do that, and they are not confident his successor, Acting Director Tom Fry, will have much success either. The industry to which the agency is most prone to an incestuous relationship, sources say, is ranching.
Cattle get preferential treatment over the environment, they say.
Consequently, much of the range on which cattle graze is severely damaged. Historically, the BLM is deeply rooted in its cowboy past, and in a sense, owes its existence to the ranching industry. It was born in 1946 from the merging of two federal-agency parents, the Grazing Service and the General Land Office. The cows were there before the agency existed. It was the other way around.