FOIA Repository – U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary

U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary FOIA Requests + Responses

Organized by date

2016-11-7: Request for records related to Assistant Secretary’s approval of Spring Creek coal mining plan in Montana.

2017-1-23: Request for records related to Assistant Secretary’s approval of Colowyo Collom coal mining plan in Colorado.

2017-1-26: Request for records related to January 20, 2017 memo regarding correspondence within the Department of the Interior.

2017-3-12: Request for records related to Secretarial Order 3338 regarding pause on federal coal leasing and development of programmatic environmental impact statement for federal coal program.

2017-4-3: Request for records related to San Juan coal mine mining plan environmental impact statement.

2017-4-11: Request for records related to Secretarial Orders 3348 and 3349 regarding lifting of the moratorium on new coal leasing and withdrawal of Interior Department climate policies.

2017-7-7: Request for communication records for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

2017-7-7: Request for communication records for Vincent DeVito, Energy Policy Counselor to the Secretary.

2017-7-7: Request for communication records for Katharine MacGregor, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Lands and Minerals.

2017-7-7: Request for records related to Secretarial Order 3354, which directs agencies to remove impediments to oil and gas and coal leasing on public lands.

2017-8-22: Request for records related to implementation of Secretarial Order 3354.

2017-8-31: Request for communication records for Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

2017-10-10: Request for records related to October 6, 2017 press release regarding oil and gas lease sales.

2017-10-19: Request for records related to November 16, 2017 Kathleen MacGregor appearance and presentation in Grand Junction to Grand Junction Petroleum and Mining Club.

2017-10-30: Request for records related to Department of the Interior “Energy Burdens” report.

2017-12-16: Request for records related to agency compliance with Secretarial Order 3355.

2017-12-25: Request for communication records for Kathleen Benedetto.

2018-1-4: Request for records related to Secretarial Order 3357.

2018-1-4: Request for records related to Secretarial Order 3358.

2018-1-4: Request for records related to Secretarial Order 3359.

2018-1-4: Request for records related to Secretarial Order 3360.

2018-1-5: Request for communication records for Heather Swift.

2018-1-5: Request for communication records for Joe Balash, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management.

2018-1-5: Request for communication records for Luke Bullock.

2018-1-5: Request for records related to Jim Bridger coal mining plan in Wyoming.

2018-1-12: Request for records related to Greens Hollow coal mining plan in Utah.

2018-1-15: Request for records related to Rosebud coal mining plan environmental impact statement.

2018-1-19: Request for records related to the Interior Department’s oversight of the Bureau of Land Management’s amendment to the Resource Management Plan for the Farmington Field Office of New Mexico.

2018-1-29: Request for records related to January 28, 2018 op-ed published by David Bernhardt in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

2018-2-1: Request for records related to Interior Department’s involvement in Bureau of Land Management Instruction Memorandum 2018-034, which rolled back federal oil and gas leasing policies.

2018-2-9: Request for FOIA logs for Interior Department and Interior Department agencies.

2018-2-9: Request for records related to Interior Department’s role in Bureau of Land Management report on “streamlining.”

2018-2-22: Request for records related to King II coal lease modification decision and coal lease application in Colorado.

2018-2-24: Follow up request for communication records for David Bernhardt, Deputy Secretary of the Interior.

2018-2-24: Follow up request for communication records for Katharine MacGregor, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals.

2018-2-24: Follow up request for communication records for Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior.

2018-2-24: Follow up request for communication records for Vincent DeVito, Energy Policy Counselor to the Secretary.

2018-3-9: Request for records related to decision to cancel March 2018 oil and gas lease sale in New Mexico.

2018-3-21: Request for records related to deferral of oil and gas lease parcels in Montana as part of March 2018 oil and gas lease sale.

2018-5-11: Request for records related to Jim Bridger and King II mining plan approvals.

2018-6-4: Request for records related to June 2018 Royalty Policy Committee meeting in Albuquerque, NM.

Betsy Gaines Quammen

Member, Board of Directors

Betsy Gaines Quammen is a historian and conservationist. She received a doctorate in Environmental History from Montana State University in 2017, her dissertation focusing on Mormon settlement and public land conflicts. She has studied various religious traditions over the years, with particular attention to how cultures view landscape and wildlife. The rural American West, pastoral communities of northern Mongolia, and the grasslands of East Africa have been her main areas of interest. After college in Colorado, caretaking for a bed and breakfast in Mosier, Oregon, and serving breakfasts at a cafe in Kanab, Utah, Betsy settled in Bozeman, Montana, where she now lives with her husband, writer David Quammen, two huge dogs, an overweight cat, and a pretty big python named Boots. She is the author of American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God, and Public Lands in the West.

Contact

[email protected]
406-396-0321

Matthew Koehler

Communications Manager

Matthew Koehler joined WildEarth Guardians as the Communications Manager in 2020, bringing 25 years of experience working to protect and defend public lands, wildlife, wilderness, and democracy. He grew up in the rural Wisconsin Village of Elkhart Lake, surrounded by the Kettle Moraine State Forest, where his family goes back six generations. His love for nature came from his parents, a housepainter and a nurse, and time the family spent hiking, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and camping on public lands. He moved to Missoula, Montana in 1995 after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside with a history degree and later obtained a secondary teaching certificate from the University of Montana, for history and English. Voted best activist by the Missoula Independent in 2007 and awarded the Fund for Wild Nature’s “grassroots activist of the year” in 2010, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and spending time in nature.

Julian Kanter

Legal Intern

Hi, I’m Julian Kanter. I am a rising 2L at Willamette University College of Law. I decided to attend law school to fight against social injustice and make a positive impact on the environment. Learning about industrial agriculture was the catalyst for my interest in environmental law. I am thrilled to be focusing on wildlife and giving a voice to the plants and animals of our natural world.

Erin Woolley

Legal Intern

Erin Woolley is a rising third-year law student at the University of Colorado Law School, pursuing certificates in both Energy, Environmental & Natural Resources Law and American Indian Law. Originally from Northern California, Erin misses the Pacific Ocean, but loves exploring Colorado’s beautiful outdoors, spending her free time hiking, camping, and learning about the native wildlife. Erin is excited to be working with WildEarth Guardians this summer and protecting wild rivers!

Maggie Flaherty

Wildlife Program Intern

Maggie Flaherty, originally from a small town in Northern California, is a rising senior at Dartmouth College. She is majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Spanish. At Dartmouth, she spends most of her time engaging in sexual violence prevention efforts as well as playing water polo. In her free time, she likes to hike and swim outdoors. Maggie is very excited to be working with WildEarth Guardians’ Wildlife and Wild Places Programs.

Grace Erispaha

Legal Coordinator

Grace Erispaha is a rising senior at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota pursuing an undergraduate degree in Economics and Environmental Studies. She is originally from Gilbert, Arizona and gets to experience the best of both worlds: brutal winters and scorching summers. Grace is excited to learn more about legal processes and hopes to apply to law school by her graduation.

Andrew Cliburn

Legal Intern

My life totally changed on December 4th, 2017 when the president came to Salt Lake City to reduce Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. Before that day, I had been a career hospitality worker—interested in wilderness to be sure—but living a selfish existence pursuing careerism and creature comforts. That selfishness went out the window when the president cruelly reduced two sacred and protected places that meant so much to so many. Since then I’ve completed two years of law school and get to work this summer with the most uncompromising organization in Earth advocacy—WildEarth Guardians.

Victoria Frankeny

Legal Intern

Victoria Frankeny is a rising third-year law student at Lewis & Clark Law School. She came to Portland, Oregon to pursue a career in environmental litigation and is currently working towards her Certificate in Environmental & Natural Resource Law. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she has been enjoying everything the Pacific Northwest has to offer, such as Mount Hood, the Pacific Ocean, and the overabundance of ferns and evergreens. Victoria is thrilled to be working with the WildEarth Guardians’ attorneys this summer on Endangered Species Act and Public Lands issues.

Ryan Benson

Communications Intern

Ryan Benson is a senior at Yale majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Originally from Charlotte, NC, she now spends most of her time in New Haven, swimming, running, and making her way through vegetarian cookbooks. She is excited to be working on WildEarth Guardians’ newsletter this summer with Dave Levine.

Contact

[email protected]

Leia Barnett

Greater Gila Campaigner

Born and raised in the foothills and arroyos of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, Leia is thrilled to bring her love and deep reverence for the high desert country of the Southwest to the Greater Gila campaign. Leia graduated summa cum laude from the University of New Mexico’s cultural anthropology program, where she focused on the ways the more-than-human world can be reimagined through anthropological theory and practice. When she’s not endeavoring to understand the complexities of a successful conservation campaign, Leia can be found mountain-side or river-side, praising the feathered and four-legged ones, and planning her next epic snack.

FOIA Repository – U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary

U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary FOIA Requests + Responses

Organized by date

WildEarth Guardians protects and restores the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West.

Betsy Gaines Quammen

Member, Board of Directors

Contact

Matthew Koehler

Communications Manager

Julian Kanter

Legal Intern

Erin Woolley

Legal Intern

Maggie Flaherty

Wildlife Program Intern

Grace Erispaha

Legal Coordinator

Andrew Cliburn

Legal Intern

Victoria Frankeny

Legal Intern

Ryan Benson

Communications Intern

Contact

Leia Barnett

Greater Gila Campaigner