| James LeRoy Caswell -- Department of the Interior |
| Director of the Bureau of Land Management |
James L. Caswell, a veteran public land manager, as the next director of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. Caswell was confirmed by the Senate by unanimous consent on Friday, August 3, 2007.
“I have the greatest confidence in Jim Caswell,” Secretary Kempthorne said, “and I welcome him to our leadership team here at Interior. He has a proven record of strong leadership and outstanding accomplishments. His experience in building public land partnerships and his expertise with endangered species programs will serve him well in this challenging position.”
During his confirmation hearings before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Caswell pledged to maintain an even-handed balance between development and conservation of public lands, winning praise from senators of both parties.
"I passionately believe in multiple-use management and conservation of our public resources with a commitment to balance, cooperation, collaboration and sharing," Caswell testified. "In my view, achievement of this commitment requires scientific information, and listening to, learning about, and collaborating with the owners of our public lands – the American people."
Achieving the multiple-use mission is "critically dependent upon enhanced community relations and being a good neighbor and a citizen of the community," Caswell said. Resource management plans "must be adaptive, dynamic, and rely on 'place based' ecosystem principles and landscape assessments," he emphasized.
Caswell has headed Idaho’s state Office of Species Conservation, which provided a policy focus for endangered species issues and coordinated state and federal efforts on endangered species management in Idaho. Under Caswell’s leadership, the office won the state legislature’s approval in 2001 for two emotionally and politically-charged issues -- a Wolf Management Plan and a Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Management Plan.
Before that Caswell spent 33 years in various positions with the Bureau of Land Management, Bonneville Power Administration, and the U.S. Forest Service. For 16 of those years, he served as forest supervisor on the Clearwater and Targhee National Forests. Caswell was also deputy forest supervisor at Boise National Forest, and acting deputy regional forester in Missoula, Montana. |
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