The following is just my opinion. My opinion is formed on the back of years of direct experience but it is just an opinion. We all got one.
This is the crux of the governments dilemma - BLM has a mandate to protect the lands they manage. BLM management (a succession of presidents) have squandered limited money and resources on so many programs that don't protect the land that the only way the BLM is left with to protect the land is to close it to public use.
How many of you are old enough to remember a time when BLM and forest employees were unarmed, friendly and helpful? Did you know there were no LEO BLM or Forest employees in the field before 1980?
Since 1980 the creation of an enforcement emphasis rather than a maintenance, patrol and education emphasis has created a culture of closure and exclusion. This can be directly attributed to the simple fact that since 1980 agency LEOs gained precedence in hiring, budget, seniority, and work privileges. They are paid more than other employees with the same experience, rank and time served because they are LEO qualified. As a BLM employee it's a guaranteed raise if you get law enforcement qualified. We all gotta feed our families so it's a no brainer for a BLM employee to get that qualification if they can.
The reason these areas get and stay trashed is partially due to the simple fact that LEO qualified employees are exempt from picking up trash or cleaning in public. With the pre 1980 culture most of a BLM field employee's time was spent keeping their assigned area clean and assisting the visiting public. Friendly presence + an actual mission to maintain the land led to public respect, understanding and cleaner use areas.
As the various budget cuts have come and gone though the last 35 years each round of layoffs to meet the new budget has resulted in non LEO employees being laid off first by policy. When rehiring with an increased budget comes around applicants with a LEO certificate have been hired first by policy.
It was foreseeable and perhaps inevitable that we would end up with a BLM that is populated with gun toting do nothing "cops". The BLM no longer has the qualified personal to actually maintain the land they are charged with protecting. Add to that all the bitter greenies that wasted their college years studying forestry or ecology to get a dead end job in a BLM office and you've got a toxic mix of frustrated bitter wannabe environmentalists and swollen headed cops.
We used to hire our fellow citizens to keep our public places clean and maintained. Now we hire cops to tell us what we can't do in those public places. That trash was left by a disrespectful public. The arrogant attitudes and lack of maintenance of our public lands by the very people we hire to care for those lands is a prime cause of the lack of respect for these lands by the public in my opinion. When the BLM gets back to actually maintaining the land, puts down the guns and the attitude and stops trying to preserve by exclusion rather than maintaining with hands on action we will eventually get back to a respectful public who cooperate in keeping our public lands clean and open.
Until then ...
Heavy Pans
tweakers and trash dumpers surely know how to use cable cutters.
