California Desert District welcomes new associate district manager

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Bureau of Land Management, California

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California Desert District Office

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A man stands in a desert landscape. (BLM Photo)MORENO VALLEY, Calif. – Benjamin Gruber has been selected as the Associate District Manager for the California Desert District. Gruber comes to southern California from Washington, District of Columbia, where he most recently served as the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Senior Legislative Affairs Specialist.

Gruber implemented the Bureau’s legislative program and was responsible for establishing and maintaining communications with Congress. Gruber also worked on a variety of issues involving the California Desert, including military land withdrawals, renewable energy development and off-highway vehicle recreation.

“Throughout my career, I have collaborated with many different stakeholders to address policy challenges associated with the public lands we manage,” Gruber said. “In this new role, I look forward to working with the excellent staff around our district and using my experience to facilitate communications with the Bureau’s state and national management teams.”

Prior to working in legislative affairs, Gruber worked in the BLM national budget office, where he developed funding strategies and proposals in support of the President’s annual budget requests to Congress. In addition, Gruber has served as the BLM’s Acting Division Chief for Intergovernmental and External Affairs and worked as a BLM Congressional Fellow in the office of then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Gruber began his federal career as a Presidential Management Fellow, completing assignments with the BLM’s California State Office in Sacramento, California, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Reefs National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Ben holds a bachelor’s degree in English from The Ohio State University, a master’s degree in public administration from Ohio State’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs, and a law degree from Capital University Law School. These schools are all located in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

The California Desert District, created by Congress in 1976 to protect the desert’s special values, comprises approximately 11 million acres of public lands in the lower third of California within the California Desert Conservation Area. The desert district also includes 300,000 acres of scattered parcels in the south coast area.


The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.