Animals lose friends in D.C.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:
WASHINGTON D.C.––Bureau of Land Management chief
James Baca resigned February 3 rather than be kicked upstairs by Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who had offered to make him his deputy assis-
tant. Baca was unpopular with ranchers and miners due to his demand for
tougher environmental controls on use of the 270 million acres of BLM
land, and for reform of leasing agreements to gain market value returns
from grazing leases and mining claims. Ranchers also recall that Baca
threw the USDA’s Animal Damage Control agency out of New Mexico in
1992 for failing to inspect traps at least once every 24 hours, to reduce
animal suffering and harm to endangered speces.
Babbitt said he remained “deeply committed to getting grazing
rules worked out and also to getting reforms of the mining law of 1872
enacted,” but ousted Baca because they have “different approaches to
management style and consensus building.”