WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) sent a letter to Tracy Stone-Manning, President Biden’s nominee to be director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), demanding answers on her involvement with eco-terrorists. 

Barrasso is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR). 

In the letter, Barrasso posed several questions of Stone-Manning regarding her involvement with a 1989 tree spiking case in Idaho. He also questioned the ethics of a personal loan listed on her public financial disclosure form. Barrasso requested she respond to his follow-up questions no later than July 15, 2021. Barrasso also notes Stone-Manning has not yet responded to his written questions for the record for her June 8 nomination hearing. 

Read the full letter here and below. 

Read Barrasso’s follow-up questions here. 

Dear Ms. Stone-Manning: 

The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (Committee) received your completed and sworn Statement for Completion by Presidential Nominees (Questionnaire) dated May 27, 2021 on the form requested by the Committee. The Committee received your completed Public Financial Disclosure Report (OGE Form 278e), which you certified on March 18, 2021 as “true, complete and correct to the best of my knowledge,” from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on May 17, 2021. The Committee considered your sworn testimony at a hearing held by the Committee on your nomination on June 8, 2021. 

The Committee Questionnaire has been in substantially the same form for many years. It has been provided by the Committee during the tenure of Chairmen of both parties to all nominees of Presidents of both parties for appointment with the advice and consent of the Senate for positions within the jurisdiction of the Committee. For example, every person who has been nominated to serve as Director of the Bureau of Land Management in at least the last two Presidential administrations has completed a Committee Questionnaire in substantially the same form. All nominees also complete and certify OGE Form 278e. If invited by the Committee, all nominees within the jurisdiction of the Committee provide sworn testimony to the Committee during a hearing on their nomination, and in written responses to follow-up questions for the record submitted by Committee Members. 

The information a nominee provides in response to the Committee Questionnaire, on OGE Form 278e, during a nomination hearing held by the Committee, in written responses to follow-up questions for the record, and throughout the time a nomination is pending informs the Committee about a nominee’s background and qualifications, and, ultimately, assists the Senate in fulfilling its constitutional duty to provide advice and consent with regard to nominations. 

Certain of the answers you provided on your Committee Questionnaire of May 27, on OGE Form 278e which you certified on March 18, and in your testimony to the Committee on June 8 have prompted this communication. In order to further assist the Committee in understanding your background and qualifications, and in an effort to provide you with an opportunity to clarify certain answers and respond to additional information that has come to light since your nomination hearing, I request that you respond fully and completely to the supplemental follow-up questions attached to this letter. 

Please note that the supplemental follow-up questions attached to this letter are in addition to (and not a substitute for) the final follow-up questions for the record submitted to you (through your representative) by the Committee in the early afternoon of June 10, 2021. One month has passed and the Committee still has not received your responses to the follow-up questions for the record asked by its Members. By comparison, the three other nominees who provided sworn testimony to the Committee alongside you during the June 8 nomination hearing submitted their written responses the morning of June 22, 2021. 

In order to enable preparations for a possible Committee business meeting to consider your nomination, please provide the requested responses in writing to the follow-up questions for the record submitted to you (through your representative) on June 10, 2021 and to the supplemental follow-up questions attached to this letter as soon as possible, but no later than Thursday, July 15, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. 

Thank you for your assistance. 

Background Information: 

On her committee questionnaire, Stone-Manning said she was never the subject of a criminal investigation and that the case was an “alleged” tree spiking. In court testimony obtained by the committee, Stone-Manning admitted she edited, retyped, and sent a threatening letter to the US Forest Service on behalf of the eco-terrorists. Years later, she received immunity in order to testify against the individuals who had spiked the trees. The court documents also confirm that hundreds of trees were spiked. Some of these trees remain a danger to loggers, Forest Service employees, and fire fighters. 

The BLM manages almost 65 million acres of forests.