A new report from the Government Accountability Office of Congress finds that the Agriculture and Interior departments have failed to complete security assessments of federal facilities on public land, and calls for making federal land-management facilities safer in the wake of threats and assaults against government employees, Jennifer Yachnin reports for Energy & Environment News.
According to data compiled from the four federal land-management agencies -- the USDA's Forest Service and Interior's Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service -- employees faced issues ranging from threatening telephone calls to attempted murder in fiscal years 2013 through 2017. "However, the number of actual threats and assaults is unclear and may be higher than what is captured in available data for various reasons," the report acknowledges. "For example, employees may not always report threats because they consider them a part of the job."
The report found that Forest Service employees reported the most threats and assaults, with 177 incidents in the time period studied. BLM employees reported 88 incidents, FWS employees reported 66, and NPS reported 29. The NPS tally doesn't include the U.S. Park Police.
The GAO conducted the review after a 2017 request by House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who wanted to know how land managers were responding to "anti-government extremism," Yachnin reports. Grijalva referred to incidents such as the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by anti-government activists.
According to data compiled from the four federal land-management agencies -- the USDA's Forest Service and Interior's Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service -- employees faced issues ranging from threatening telephone calls to attempted murder in fiscal years 2013 through 2017. "However, the number of actual threats and assaults is unclear and may be higher than what is captured in available data for various reasons," the report acknowledges. "For example, employees may not always report threats because they consider them a part of the job."
The report found that Forest Service employees reported the most threats and assaults, with 177 incidents in the time period studied. BLM employees reported 88 incidents, FWS employees reported 66, and NPS reported 29. The NPS tally doesn't include the U.S. Park Police.
The GAO conducted the review after a 2017 request by House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who wanted to know how land managers were responding to "anti-government extremism," Yachnin reports. Grijalva referred to incidents such as the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by anti-government activists.
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