On April 7, Kathleen Henkel, Roger Taylor, Dr. Barney Fleming, Jerry Fruth, and I had the great pleasure to represent AERC at the Fort Stanton (NM) trailhead where we met for over an hour with Kathleen Clark, national director of the Bureau of Land Management. Ms. Clark is the most dynamic and passionate person I have met who is also in a top position in the federal government. She was extremely friendly--like an old friend--and reminisced about her early days in New Mexico and her great love for the outdoors, equines, and our varied lands.

Roger was presented a plaque for donating over 1,000 hours a year for the last five years to development of trails and other projects at Fort Stanton. Each of the rest of us, as directors and representatives of AERC, were given certificates signed by Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton and Ms. Clark. The certificates were in recognition of AERC's partnership in land management and trails development at Fort Stanton. Then Ms. Clark presented to our executive director, accepting for AERC, a beautiful custom-made crystal award from the BLM--a base engraved with appreciation for AERC's partnership with the BLM and a beautiful crystal globe. It is a magnificent award that Kathleen will keep at the office--and bring to the convention, I hope.

The most amazing thing was Ms. Clark's extemporaneous address to the 15-plus attendees, which included a newspaper journalist, a woman with a syndicated radio show, and many BLM employees as well as a rancher who allowed the 2000 AERC National Championships to travel over his private land. Ms. Clark spoke of her early days, learning to ride a horse in New Mexico, the beauty of the Fort Stanton area, her love for the land and how proud she was to be the BLM director in a time when it was actively working with the private sector.

The BLM director is especially proud of the relationship the BLM has with AERC and commented that she will encourage her 10,000 employees to seek out partners in the private sector to become partners in land management, recreational use of the land, development of trails and other projects that benefit the local communities, the wildlife, and the plant life.

She actually was in tears for a part of the address. My best guess is the emotion of the time caught up with her. In the past the BLM has operated under a "tunnel vision" system and Ms. Clark, prompted by the success of the AERC-BLM partnership at Fort Stanton, now wants her district offices to look at the "big picture." Ms. Clark will take in the entire scope of land use and is encouraging her employees to seek out recreational users who can help manage the lands. As she said, the BLM has millions of acres of land but only 10,000 people to manage them. She doesn't want more employees, she wants more partners like AERC. (The above are not exact quotes, but very close.)

Ms. Clark also told Trails Advocacy Committee chair Jerry Fruth that she wants to meet with him in Washington to discuss how the BLM can work with AERC on other issues related to trails. Jerry told me this was the most worthwhile trip he has made for the committee since he became its chair.

I have never been so proud of AERC and what we have accomplished for the long-term benefit of AERC trails. AERC has a real friend in Washington who is the national director of one of the largest federal land management organizations in the United States.