Feds accused of withholding info

CASPER — Conservation groups are accusing federal agencies of systematically denying access to public information in Wyoming and other western states in order to play political favorites on public lands.

The organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is raising alarm over a swelling backlog of records requests through the Freedom of Information Act, the federal law that entitles citizens access to public records. Public information is being mummified in red tape, the groups says, leading to bad policy and no public recourse but litigation.

The Government Accountability Office in March issued a report showing that government-wide FOIA backlogs have increased by more than 50% in less than a decade.

The report also revealed that there are two especially negligent agencies: The Bureau of Land Management and the National Parks Service, whose outsize roles in public lands policy carry big implications for the Cowboy State.

As of the end of the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2024, BLM’s FOIA backlog is 1,598 requests — more than one-third the total backlog of all 14 Interior agencies combined.

It raises suspicion at a time when BLM’s policies have been hotly contested, including its Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, as well as this month’s North Lander wild horse roundup in which advocates have accused the agency of scapegoating mustangs for rangeland degradation caused by cattle.

“The basic problem is that the current and traditional BLM leadership frankly do not believe in transparency. They do not fundamentally respect the public’s right to know how their own lands are being managed,” said Chandra Rosenthal, policy director with PEER, who believes the agency’s obscurity is by design to minimize debate and play favorites. “BLM does its business with various commercial interests behind closed doors in a fashion fully deserving of the nickname ‘The Bureau of Livestock & Mining,’” she said.

According to the Government Accountability Office report, the backlog stems from an overall increase in both the volume and complexity of records requests as well as insufficient staff and department resources, making it hard for agencies to find, review, and process relevant records within the required time frame.

Responding to a letter from PEER and Western Watersheds, Director of the BLM Tracey Stone-Manning explained the agency has “enlisted contract support at the beginning of fiscal year 2024 dedicated to reducing the backlog.”; The BLM is “also working to make previously internal information, such as the wild horse and burro database, accessible to the public to reduce FOIA requests and facilitate easier access to requested data.”

Worst offender: NPS

The problem is that often by the time FOIAs are processed, their relevance has gone by the wayside, defeating the purpose, which many believe is the point.

This is overwhelmingly the case at the National Park Service, according to Jonathan Ratner, director of the conservation group Sage Steppe Wild, who focuses on rangeland condition issues in the American West.

“I have FOIAs that were done on the Park Service over half a decade ago where I haven’t gotten anything. And when things actually do arrive, the amount of redactions render the material meaningless, worthless,” said Rattner, who’s previously worked as an endangered animal researcher for the Forest Service and BLM. “The performance for the Park Service has been absolutely atrocious. The attitude is so incredibly anti-FOIA.”

Technically, the law requires agencies to respond within 20 days, but that rarely happens.

Instead, requestors are often given the runaround, passed off to various bureaucrats and told to be patient, Rattner explained. This leaves little recourse but litigation.

Currently, PEER, Sage Steppe Wild and three additional conservation organizations together have approximately 97 FOIA requests pending and 10 FOIA lawsuits awaiting resolution.

Litigation then becomes simply a more costly form of FOIA.

“The public should not have to rely on litigation to have the Freedom of Information Act operative. Many requestors don’t have the capacity to hire a lawyer and go through all that process to get documents. And so that’s not how FOIA was designed,” Rattner said.

Equally frustrating is that the status quo remains even after lawsuits are won, said Rattner. “Even when we win, which is the vast majority of the cases, there are no personal ramifications to the people who made what they knew was an illegal decision [to deny or delay the request].There are no ramifications for the agency’s staff personally, professionally, or financially. And so it will continue,” he said.

This story was published on August 11, 2024.