OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

For Immediate Release Michael Gauldin or Peter Hamm

January 7, 1997

202-208-6416

SYLVIA BACA NAMED INTERIM BLM DIRECTOR

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt announced today the selection of Sylvia V. Baca as Interim Director of the Bureau of Land Management. She succeeds Michael P. Dombeck, who headed BLM as Acting Director for two and one-half years before leaving the agency this month to become Chief of the U.S. Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture.

Ms. Baca currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, a division of the Interior Department that oversees the BLM, as well as the Minerals Management Service and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. She will return to that post after the selection and confirmation of a permanent BLM Director.

"Sylvia Baca has worked closely with the BLM and with the states and communities served by the agency and has earned a reputation as a knowledgeable, skilled and energetic manager," Babbitt said. "We are very fortunate she has agreed to lend her talents and energy to the management of this important agency until a permanent director is sworn in."

As Interim Director, Ms. Baca will oversee the day-to-day operations of an agency that is responsible for managing 265 million acres of public land, located mostly in the Western United States and Alaska. The BLM manages an additional 300 million acres of subsurface mineral rights held by the Federal Government.

Prior to joining the Interior Department two years ago as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Ms. Baca was Director of Finance and Management for the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received a Bachelor of University Studies in 1981 and a Master of Public Administration in 1989 from the University of New Mexico.

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