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BLM Denies Funding For Staffers Scheduled To Speak At Research Conference

The Trump Administration announced it would shrink Bears Ears National Monument in late 2017. The site is known for numerous archeological sites.
Howard Berkes
/
NPR
The Trump Administration announced it would shrink Bears Ears National Monument in late 2017. The site is known for numerous archeological sites.
The Trump Administration announced it would shrink Bears Ears National Monument in late 2017. The site is known for numerous archeological sites.
Credit Howard Berkes / NPR
/
NPR
The Trump Administration announced it would shrink Bears Ears National Monument in late 2017. The site is known for numerous archeological sites.

The Society for American Archeology canceled a panel this spring because the Bureau of Land Management wouldn’t pay for its staffers to attend and lead a symposium on Land Management issues.

Click 'play' to hear the audio version of this story.Since the administration shrank Bears Ears andGrand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, archeological sites and public lands are a hot topic.

Seventeen BLM staffers were slated to attend and present at the society’s annual conference. Susan Chandler is the president and says the federal workers had already paid and registered.

"I think it was just a matter of permission not being granted at the eleventh hour," Chandler says. 

In an emailed statement the BLM said it limited conference participation to three staffers because of cost. The BLM says that the employees were welcome to go at their own expense, although the conferencewas held in Washington, D.C. and many of the registered employees live and work in Western states.  

Chandler says she’s never seen anything like this from the government during one of the society's meetings.  

"I think whenever voices are silenced that we lose," Chandler says. "The whole idea of having the conference is for people to get together and share their research and share their ideas."

Find reporter Amanda Peacher on Twitter @amandapeacher.

Copyright 2018 Boise State Public Radio

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2021 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.

Amanda Peacher is an Arthur F. Burns fellow reporting and producing in Berlin in 2013. Amanda is from Portland, Oregon, where she works as the public insight journalist for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She produces radio and online stories, data visualizations, multimedia projects, and facilitates community engagement opportunities for OPB's newsroom.
Amanda Peacher
Amanda Peacher works for the Mountain West News Bureau out of Boise State Public Radio. She's an Idaho native who returned home after a decade of living and reporting in Oregon. She's an award-winning reporter with a background in community engagement and investigative journalism.
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