Iditarod Trail between Kaltag and Unalakleet. Photo by Bob Wick (BLM)
A long-time aide of Congressman Don Young has been selected to head the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska. Chad Padgett has been Young’s state director for the past decade.
In his new job, Padgett will lead a workforce of about 500. In Alaska, BLM manages 70 million acres of land, and oversees mineral rights on an area three times as large. The agency is in the middle of heated resource disputes, like drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the National Petroleum Reserve, and building a road to serve the Ambler mining district.
Padgett has never worked for the BLM, but he was President George W. Bush’s appointee to a U.S. Department of Agriculture job in Alaska.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her atlruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Lizhere.
