U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., a member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Thursday he will oppose the nomination of Steve Pearce to be the next director of the Bureau of Land Management.

Pearce’s nomination has drawn opposition from conservation and environmental groups and support from cattlemen associations.

Pearce is a former Republican congressman from New Mexico and, until last December, the chair of the New Mexico Republican Party, 

The BLM manages public lands, a critical issue for Colorado, where the federal government owns more than a third of the state’s acreage – some 8.3 million surface acres and 27.1 million non-surface acres. That’s primarily land with mineral rights for oil and gas, coal and other minerals.

BLM also manages four wild horse management areas in Colorado, some of which have been plagued with problems, such as the deaths of 146 animals in 2022 at a holding facility in Cañon City from equine influenza. There have also been worries over how the agency rounds up those horses to prevent over-grazing.

The BLM, which controls 245 million acres of land across the West, employs about 660 at the Denver Federal Center.

“Americans deserve a BLM director who will be a true steward of the millions of acres under the agency’s care,” Hickenlooper said.

“Pearce is NOT that person,” the senator said. “While in Congress, he attacked environmental protections and fought to sell off public land.”

He added that Pearce’s nomination is proof the Trump administration still views public lands as assets for sale.

“On behalf of Colorado, I will vote NO because our public lands are NOT for sale,” he said.

The Denver-based Center for Western Priorities said Pearce’s time in Congress showed “a lengthy anti-public lands record, co-sponsoring numerous bills that would have undermined the Antiquities Act, made it easier to sell off national public lands, and open national forests to road-building and clear-cutting.”

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association supports Pearce’s nomination, arguing that “Pearce’s experience makes him thoroughly qualified to lead the BLM and tackle the issues federal lands ranchers are facing.”

The Senate committee’s website does not yet list a confirmation hearing date.