President Joe Biden’s director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was forced to answer questions about her role in a 1989 tree-spiking case this week before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
On Thursday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., accused BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning of lying to Congress about her role with a radical environmental group that “spiked” trees in the Clearwater National Forest near the Montana-Idaho border. Tree spiking consists of inserting metal rods into trees and is a form of ecoterrorism used by far-left activists in the 1980s and 1990s. The rods then become deadly projectiles when the trees are processed for logging. While they are intended to intimidate workers in the timber industry, metal mines planted in trees have also injured firefighters hastily working to extinguish massive blazes.
In her written testimony, submitted to the committee as part of her confirmation proceedings three years ago, Stone-Manning said she had “never been arrested or charged and to my knowledge I have never been the target of such an investigation.” In 1989, however, Stone-Manning was the subject of an investigation into an Idaho tree-spiking ring that ultimately culminated in Stone-Manning receiving an immunity deal with prosecutors in 1993. Hawley asked the BLM director whether she stood by her written statement given her prior experience being investigated as an ecoterrorist.
“I do stand by that testimony,” she said, “and was proud to be confirmed to do this job.” The BLM chief went on to frame herself as the hero
