IDAHO BLM DIRECTOR RESIGNS

BOISE, Idaho, March 8, 2002 (ENS) - Martha Hahn, director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Idaho has resigned rather than accept an involuntary transfer to a National Park Service appointment in New York.

"After considering the position, I've decided to leave government service in search of other opportunities and adventures," Hahn said in a statement.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) charges that Idaho Senator Larry Craig, a Republican, has long sought Hahn's removal and convinced top Interior officials to make the move. Craig spokeswoman Sarah Berk said today the charge is "patently untrue."

In January, Interior Deputy Secretary Steven Griles, a former lobbyist now occupying the number two spot below Interior Secretary Gale Norton, notified Hahn of her removal. The notice directed her to assume a newly created post as executive director of the National Park Service's New York Harbor operations.

Despite requirements that senior employees be consulted and, if possible, accommodated on choice of any new assignment outside of their geographic area, Hahn was not consulted or given a range of options. The only alternative to the New York Harbor posting offered to Hahn was resignation.

Hahn tendered her resignation from federal service on Wednesday and left office today.

Senator Craig has criticized many of Hahn's positions, including the Idaho BLM's decision to restrict grazing in Owyhee County. Craig called the BLM action "an affront" that he would try to reverse in Washington, DC.

Martha Hahn has been BLM Idaho director for the past seven years, responsible for managing BLM's 11.8 million acres in Idaho. As the highest ranking BLM official in Idaho, the BLM state director position is one of the top line management positions within the agency.

PEER charges that Hahn's ouster is one of a series of recent removals of BLM managers targeted by grazing, ORV and mining interests.

"Martha Hahn's removal is part of an unfolding purge of principled professionals within the top ranks of Interior," stated PEER executive director Jeff Ruch. "The message is not subtle: any federal manager in Idaho who displeases a crony of Larry Craig risks a similar fate."

Steven West, an official with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, has told associates that he is slated to replace Hahn. The BLM Idaho post does not require Senate confirmation.


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Crowdog

The artcle in the Boise paper said she didnt exactly please anybody, whether they be greens or real people.

So was she a Klintong appointee?

03/11/2002

Land agency accused of personnel 'purge'

By Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY

DENVER — Martha Hahn has worked 21 years for the federal Bureau of Land Management, the last seven as state director in Idaho, where she grappled with divisive issues ranging from grazing on public land to fire control.

But Friday was her final day. Faced with a directive from the deputy secretary of Interior to transfer to a job with the National Park Service in its New York harbor office or quit, she resigned.

To some critics of President Bush's environmental policies, Hahn's departure is part of a disturbing pattern. Several career land managers in the West have recently been ousted, they say, to satisfy local officials and ranchers, miners and off-road vehicle users who have complained the managers favor environmental interests too much in their approach to overseeing public land.

Hahn, though not a particular favorite of Idaho conservationists, had angered ranchers and members of the state's congressional delegation by restricting cattle grazing on some federal land in southwest Idaho.

The executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility calls Hahn's departure part of a "purge" and says she was removed at the behest of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "The Idaho BLM is being run by Sen. Craig," Jeff Ruch says.

Craig spokesman Mike Tracy acknowledges that the senator was unhappy with Hahn but says Craig had nothing to do with her departure. Interior Department spokesman Mark Pfeifle says, "It's normal to rotate high-level executives around ... to make them more effective managers."

Hahn says she cannot tell whether political interference played a role in her case. And she acknowledges that she was in "a position in which you are subject to being transferred and moved, especially when administrations change."

But she says she would have preferred "to have been consulted a little more so I could have looked at some choices that would be better suited to my talents and interests."

In recent weeks, two other high-level managers at the BLM who had come under fire also were transferred to new jobs.

Kate Cannon, manager of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, was directed to take a job at BLM's Washington headquarters or as deputy superintendent at Grand Canyon National Park.
Cannon, who is now at the Grand Canyon, would not speak about her move. Her transfer came after ranchers, local officials and members of Congress complained about her decisions, particularly when she removed cattle from grazing on monument land during a drought.

In California, Tim Salt was moved out of his job as manager of the BLM's California desert district earlier this year. He had angered off-road vehicle enthusiasts, miners and ranchers with decisions to protect some imperiled plants and animals by limiting driving, grazing and mining in the desert.
Some Bush administration critics say the personnel actions send a chilling message to career employees of the BLM. Often derided as the "bureau of livestock and mining" for its traditionally close relations with industry, the BLM under the Clinton administration was encouraged to adopt a more pro-conservation ethic.

"I think the message is the people who are pushing land management in a new direction may end up taking tickets at the Statue of Liberty," says John McCarthy, policy director for the Idaho Conservation League.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2002/03/11/usat-blm.htm