Steven Cohn named Bureau of Land Management Alaska director

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Steven Cohn, a veteran public land manager, has been named the new director of the Alaska State Office of the Bureau of Land Management.

“Steve brings 27 years of professional and academic natural resource management experience to his new role,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in announcing the appointment. “He is a highly skilled and respected policy expert on Alaska public land and resources issues and his expertise will benefit the BLM and Alaska constituencies we serve.”

BLM said in a May 6 release that Cohn is returning to BLM from The Nature Conservancy where he has been Alaska state director since 2018.

Cohn began his federal service career with BLM as a presidential management fellow, and before he left in 2018 he was BLM Alaska deputy state director for resources. Other assignments during his tenure with BLM include acting Utah associate state director, division chief for the National Landscape Conservation System and acting branch chief, Planning and NEPA. He has also served at BLM’s Hassayampa field office in Phoenix, Arizona, and as assistant field manager in Prineville, Oregon, and Tucson, Arizona.

Cohn holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University and advanced degrees from the University of California at Berkeley College of Natural Resources. He lives with his family in Anchorage and enjoys fishing, hiking and paddling rivers in remote sections of the state. He replaces Tom Heinlein, who served as acting director and will return to his permanent role as BLM Anchorage district manager.

The agency said that as BLM Alaska state director Cohn will be responsible for overseeing management of 70 million surface acres and 220 million acres of federal subsurface mineral estate. He will oversee 650 permanent staff and some 200 seasonal employees who help manage public land uses and resources including the Federal Subsistence Management Program, the Alaska Land Transfer Program, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and oversight of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

Cohn will rejoin BLM by the end of May.

- KRISTEN NELSON