Environmental Attorney to Lead Bureau of Land Management

BLM land in Utah’s Redrock Country, and sage-grouse habitat. Photo: Marcos Rivas

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — The Bureau of Land Management announced this week that an attorney who previously worked on agency issues for environmental groups will serve as the new deputy director.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said Nada Culver, who was appointed to the Denver position, will effectively run the agency for the short term, replacing former agency director William Perry Pendley, The Daily Sentinel reported Tuesday.

The department also said Culver’s new position is the first in the succession order. Culver will perform delegated duties of the director until someone is hired. Pendley also ran the agency as the deputy director since the agency’s director position has been vacant.

The position is subject to a Senate confirmation process following nomination by the president. President Joe Biden has not yet nominated anyone to serve as director.

The Interior Department said in a statement that the department’s political team “proudly reflects the diversity of America” with more than half the team identifying as people of color and 80% as women.

The bureau oversees nearly a quarter-billion public acres in the U.S. West and much of the nation’s development of onshore oil and gas.

Culver most recently served as vice president of public lands and senior policy counsel at the National Audubon Society. Previously, she served as senior counsel and senior director for policy and planning at the Wilderness Society, where she created a group that worked with people on participating in land use planning processes and management decisions.

Culver started her career working on environmental issues. She was a partner with the law firm Patton Boggs, now Squire Patton Boggs.