Senior Advisor to BLM Director to Join Private Practice

WASHINGTON - Kim Harb, Senior Advisor to Bureau of Land Management Director Sylvia Baca, will be leaving the BLM on January 12 to work for a law firm in Washington, DC.

Baca praised Harb as a superb lawyer and advisor, whose expertise on Alaska and public lands has been invaluable to me and the Department of the Interior. We will miss Kim, but I thank her for her dedicated service to the BLM, the Interior Department and the Administration. I wish her all the best as she takes on a new set of challenges in the private sector.

Harb advised the Director on public lands and minerals issues, and represented the bureau before Congress. Prior to coming to the BLM, Harb worked from 1991-1995 as an attorney in the Solicitor=s Office Energy and Minerals Division at the Interior Department. In that capacity, she represented BLM and the Department on public land, minerals and Alaska issues.

While at the BLM, Harb has advised the Director on all issues within the Bureau, including mineral development, rights-of-way, forestry, and planning. Harb was also a key advisor for the 4.6 million acre planning process for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which resulted in successful oil and gas leasing and the protection of key wildlife habitat on the North Slope of Alaska. Nina Hatfield, Deputy Director of the BLM, commended Harb for her work on the project and other matters, stating that her legal and policy expertise were vital to the Department during her tenure with the bureau. AKim was a top notch advisor on minerals and public land issues. I=m sure she will excel in the private sector as she did in public service.

Harb, a 1991 graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, will be joining Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. She will practice public land law within the firm's Energy Practice, which represents some of the country's largest oil and gas, power generation, pipeline and utility companies.

The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages more land - 264 million surface acres B than any other Federal agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, with a budget of $1.4 billion and a workforce of some 8,700 full-time permanent employees, also administers more than 560 million acres of subsurface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM preserves open space by managing the public lands for multiple uses, including outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, and mining, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources found on the public lands.