A veteran employee of the Bureau of Land Management in the San Luis Valley filed a whistleblower complaint Monday, saying her bosses are failing to enforce livestock grazing rules on public lands and jeopardizing the ecosystem along the Rio Grande River.
Melissa Shawcroft, who has been a BLM rangeland management specialist since 1992, is facing a two-week unpaid suspension after her supervisor decided to discipline her over discourteous emails and a failure to follow rules. Shawcroft is arguing that the discipline is retaliation for her insistence that the Bureau take action to stop area ranchers from trespassing by allowing their livestock to graze on BLM property without permits.
The illegal grazing has gone unchecked for years on the nearly 250,000 acres she manages and her constant pleas for enforcement, which must be authorized by her supervisors, have gone unheeded, she said. Shawcroft has documented damage to the land and riverbanks during inspections, including with photographs, and has heard repeated complaints from ranchers who pay to use BLM land.
“I knew it was uncalled for because I’ve been speaking up about the trespasses that have been going on lately and it’s not getting taken care of,” Shawcroft told The Denver Post. “I’m sick and tired of them telling me it’s my job to solve the problem when I don’t have the authority to do it. I jabbed at them and they fired back.”
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