Despite growing up in Southern Nevada, I didn’t spend much time outdoors when I was young. It wasn’t until I first explored the breathtaking Mojave Desert on a spring break trip 10 years ago with Friends of Nevada Wilderness that I truly felt “Home Means Nevada.”

That sense of home grew as I hiked the winding trails of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, camped under the dark skies of Gold Butte National Monument, admired the petroglyphs of Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area and enjoyed the solitude in the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness of Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. I came to realize that public lands are a major part of what makes Nevada unique — and now the future of those wild places is at risk.

In 2025, President Donald Trump nominated Stevan Pearce (R), a former New Mexico congressman, to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management. On Feb. 25, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which includes Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), will consider Pearce’s nomination.

Pearce’s past criticism of environmental organizations and legislative record of advocating for reduced federal ownership are cause for concern, but there are plenty more. He has criticized the historic expansion of national monuments and forests. During his time in Congress, Pearce voted repeatedly against the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program protecting natural areas. He opposed safeguards that prevent the transfer or sale of federal lands, challenged the Antiquities Act and supported attempts to reduce environmental standards on oil and gas drilling. He also fought against federal rules aimed at limiting methane pollution from public lands extraction and resisted efforts to raise royalties so taxpayers receive greater compensation from drilling on federal acreage. 

Pearce’s opposition to safeguards against selling or transferring public lands is especially alarming for Nevada, where the federal government manages approximately 48 million acres. In a state already off track on its renewable portfolio standards, public lands serve as essential carbon sinks, including the Mojave Desert. Undermining federal stewardship would intensify a climate crisis that is already deadly. Nevada is the driest state in the nation and home to the two fastest-warming cities in the country. Policies that fuel sprawl, expand fossil fuel use or reduce land protections carry direct human costs. 

This isn’t the first time the Trump administration nominated a potential director with serious ethical conflicts. Trump’s previous nominee during his second term, Kathleen Sgamma, a representative of the oil and gas industry, withdrew her nomination after critics discovered she publicly condemned Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. In his first term, Trump nominated and later withdrew another provocateur of privatizing public lands, William Perry Pendley. 

Compare that to Biden’s nominee, Tracy Stone-Manning, who was a career-long advocate for the conservation of public lands, but who was scrutinized by Democrats and Republicans for her association with radical environmental group Earth First! during her time as a graduate student in 1989. Nominations and their political spectacle aside, past BLM directors have had an outsized influence on Nevada, and their decisions ripple throughout our state for better or worse. 

With his record, we know what to expect from Pearce. It would mean the sale of our public lands for development and extraction under the guise of “small government.” Once these lands are altered, they can never be restored to their original state. Not only could we lose iconic landscapes forever, but selling off public lands is detrimental to the health and well-being of our communities. 

The economic impact is just as real. Transportation and electricity are Nevada’s largest source of emissions and selling public land often drives urban sprawl, meaning more roads, traffic, air pollution, water use and taxpayer-funded infrastructure. Rising temperatures mean higher electricity bills, with disproportionate burdens placed on residents in older, poorly insulated homes and urban heat island neighborhoods. On top of that, unhealthy air quality and extreme heat add unnecessary strain on our public health services and increase mental health costs. 

Beyond their beauty, public lands hold deep cultural and spiritual significance for tribal nations. Expanding mining or weakening oversight in a state already struggling with long-term mine pollution raises serious environmental justice concerns. Pearce’s record reflects a preference for extraction over stewardship, a direction Nevada cannot afford. 

Nevada’s public lands are essential resources that support education, research, tourism, outdoor recreation and a healthy climate. The process of confirming leaders to oversee agencies such as the BLM offers the public an opportunity to better understand how management philosophies shape the use of millions of acres across the American West. 

We need a BLM director who will consider the long-term impacts of public lands management, not just the short-term profits to be made by corporate executives, lobbyists and shareholders. Let’s ensure home can still mean Nevada for generations to come.

Jackie Spicer is a lifelong Nevadan, UNLV graduate and coalition coordinator for the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition.