Indigenous American selected for Park Service

Santa Fe-based Wild Earth Guardians joined other interested parties in suing the Trump Organization's BLM to stop oil and gas encroachment on Chaco Culture National Historic Park which is managed by the US Park Service. New Mexico's congressional delegation celebrated the US House passage of then US Representative for New Mexico's Third District now Senator Ben Ray Lujan's amendment to halt drilling on public lands near the monument but the bill did not make it through Mitch McConnell's Earth hater controlled Senate. 

The US Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service and at least 15 other federal agencies suffered hits to morale from the Trump White House.

The National Park Service that awaits Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III, nominated to be agency director, needs some help. It was just recovering from the 2019 government shutdown when the coronavirus pandemic hit, closing parks and historic sites and delaying action on a backlog of about $12 billion of repairs. Two years earlier, a federal survey had found more than a third of park service staff experienced sexual harassment monthly or more often. And the department has not had a Senate-confirmed director since January 2017. A member of and former executive director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, in Oregon, he would make history as the first Native American to run the 106-year-old agency, if confirmed by the Senate. By federal law, the park service is required to work with tribes to help maintain cultural and historical lands and resources. [Park Service nominee would face morale, crowding challenges]

ip photo: cliff dwelling at Bandelier National Monument.