Is it possible to please environmentalists, miners and ranchers at the same time?
Pat Shea, the Utahn who now heads the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, says he's attempting to do exactly that.It may mean the political pendulum at his agency is turning back toward the middle after swings to the extremes in battles over how much public land to develop and how much to leave wild.
For decades, even some BLM directors joked that "BLM" must really stand for "Bureau of Livestock and Mining" because it constantly seemed to push development of such resources.
But then environmentalists seemed to have the upper hand during the early part of the Clinton administration, when miners and ranchers worried that BLM might then stand for "Banish Livestock and Mining" to protect more wilderness.
Shea told Western reporters last week that his agency's mandate is to serve multiple uses on public lands - including development and conservation - and that is what he intends to do.
So he's encouraging all affected land users to talk more together and with the BLM to see if they can find new ways around old conflicts to accommodate everyone.
Shea says such efforts led to an innovative deal he announced last week to end a years-long fight about military flights from Mountain Home Air Force Base over public lands in southern Idaho.
The agreement didn't ban low-level flights over all such areas - only some. In areas where flights are allowed, it set specific days or seasons when they may occur.
Shea said that allows people who want a quiet wilderness experience to check the schedules and plan trips accordingly.
He says he can relate to such desires because he once was quietly floating on a raft in Wyoming when "a B-52 (a huge jet bomber) flew 200 feet over our heads," almost making him flip into the water. "People should be able to avoid those surprises."
He added, "For those who want absolute wilderness, this will not meet their needs. But our mandate is for multiple use, and this will facilitate predictable multiple use over an important part of southern Idaho."
Another sign that Shea doesn't march in lock step with the pro-nature crowd is he supports euthanasia of wild horses in some circumstances - even though that may make some animal rights groups angry.
He said veterinarians rank the health of horses on a scale of 1 to 10, "and a horse that is a `1' doesn't have many days to live." He said it is more humane to euthanize them than to let them suffer. He has been working with an advisory board representing varying interests to support allowing that.
But one sign that the BLM pendulum still is somewhat on the side of national environmental groups is Shea's refusal to work with Utah's congressional delegation on a new wilderness bill.
Republicans say the bill is a compromise among competing interests - as Shea seeks - to protect part of the San Rafael Swell as traditional wilderness; some as semi-primitive areas allowing some motorized access; and some as national heritage or conservation areas allowing grazing and development.
But national environmental groups say they were not invited to discuss the plan before it was finished, which local officials deny. The national groups also say it protects too little wilderness.
With such pressure from administration allies, Shea has said President Clinton would veto the bill - and turned down requests for BLM assistance to try to resolve problems with it.
He said he did that because even talking with the delegation about how to possibly fix the bill might send the incorrect signal that the administration supports changes that the bill would make in traditional wilderness.
So Shea's drive to make environmentalists, ranchers and miners all happy seems doomed on that particular issue - unless he listens to his own advice to talk things out with competing interests, and maybe make BLM mean "Build Like Mindsets."