BLM Advisory Group Gets New Members

Two Bakersfield men have been appointed by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to the Central California Resource Advisory Council.  Dwight McNaughton and Bill Vanherweg will join a 12 member panel providing advice to the Bureau of Land Management on the use of nearly two million acres of public land.

Vanherweg is a wildlife biologist and consultant who will represent environmental interests on the council.  McNaughton is the owner RAM Holdings Inc., a real estate, agriculture and mining venture.  He will represent energy interests.

 "The Resource Advisory Council has made some great contributions,  most recently creating a 'standards and guidelines for recreation management' which is really an outstanding piece of work.  I look forward to working with our newest members", says BLM Field Manager Ron Fellows.

Two other members whose terms expired have been reappointed by the Secretary for another term.  They are Carl Twisselman, a McKittrick rancher who represents grazing interests, and Susana Mata, a Fresno State University professor of education who represents the public-at-large. 

There are 24 Resource Advisory Councils throughout the West, three of them in California, with citizen members advising the BLM on a range of local issues.  BLM  manages more land - 264 million surface acres - than any other federal agency.  Most of this public land is located in 12 western states, including 17 million acres in California.  The Bureau, which has a budget of $1.8 billion and a workforce of about 9,000 employees, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the Nation.  

- BLM -