Colorado’s senators say Grand Junction is the ideal spot for Bureau of Land Management headquarters, and they’re urging the Secretary of the Interior to visit.
Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Cory Gardner sent a letter to Secretary Ryan Zinke, encouraging him to choose Grand Junction as the new headquarters for the BLM. Zinke reportedly is interested in moving the agency closer to the lands it oversees, most of which are in the western U.S.
The BLM manages more than 250 million acres of land and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral resources.
The senators wrote that Grand Junction is an ideal spot for the agency, as it has easy access to many of these lands, which are being used for recreation as well as energy development. They touted the small city’s resources, like Colorado Mesa University, infrastructure and reasonable cost of living.