Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) led 75 members - including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and 14 committee ranking members - in a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to withdraw his nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to serve as Bureau of Land Management director. In part, the members wrote:

"The primary reason we oppose Ms. Stone-Manning’s nomination is because of her connections to tree spiking incidents. As you are well aware, tree spiking is an especially vicious eco-terrorist tactic by which a metal rod is hammered into a tree trunk with the intent of jamming loggers’ or firefighters’ saws. Spiked trees can also end up in mills and cause costly damage to mill equipment, as well as injury or death to mill operators. At its worst, tree spiking is lethal to loggers, firefighters, mill workers and land managers, and at its best, causes life-altering injuries. Those who employ these tactics know exactly what they are doing. Ms. Stone-Manning is no exception...

"Furthermore, Ms. Stone-Manning has advocated for other deeply disconcerting ideologies. Just last year, she tweeted an article written by her husband, Richard Manning, in which he wrote that firefighters should simply let homes and property in or near forests burn. 'There’s a rude and satisfying justice in burning down the house of someone who builds in the forest...' he wrote. Ms. Stone-Manning termed the article a '[c]larion call.'

"There is no doubt that someone with this history of extreme, violent views should not be in a position of authority at an agency responsible for managing 245 million acres of federal lands and 700 million acres of mineral estate."