Kempthorne appoints council members
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Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has appointed one new member and reappointed four members to the BLM Alaska Resource Advisory Council. The council advises the Bureau of Land Management on public land issues in Alaska.
Mark Hanley, Alaska public affairs manager for Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the new appointment, was named to a seat representing energy and minerals.
Reappointed to the council were: Charlie Boddy, vice president of governmental relations with Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. in Fairbanks, representing energy and minerals; Sandra Key-Holsten, Cooper Landing Advisory Commission, Cooper Landing, representing conservation; Scott Hala, vice president of Alaska Outdoor Access Alliance, Anchorage, representing dispersed recreation; and Jim Posey, general manager of Municipal Light & Power, Anchorage, representing the public at large.
The appointments are for three-year terms.
Line of communication BLM State Director Tom Lonnie commended the Resource Advisory Council members “for the time they voluntarily dedicate to analyzing BLM land management issues and recommending courses of action to the BLM.”
“They provide a valuable line of communication between the BLM and the public,” he said. “The diversity of their backgrounds provides our agency with a balanced outlook that helps us effectively manage the public lands for multiple use.”
The council has 15 members who represent a cross selection of Alaska and represent energy, tourism, recreation, conservation, Alaska Natives and the public at large.
BLM said the members come from different backgrounds, represent diverse interests and are dedicated to building consensus on public land issues.
The agency said that during the past year the council focused much of its attention on invasive plant management, reindeer grazing in the Seward Peninsula area, the final stages of BLM’s Bay Resource Management Plan and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The council meets three times a year in various locations throughout the state. Its next meeting will be in Anchorage in the first quarter of 2009. Council meetings are open to the public and include a public comment period.
BLM manages 258 million surface acres, 80.8 million in Alaska, and administers 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate.
—Petroleum News
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