The Trump administration’s nominee to oversee national forests blamed a heavy-handed Forest Service on Tuesday for repeated brushes he’s had with the agency regarding his ranches in Idaho.
Michael Boren, the multimillionaire business owner who’s in line for undersecretary of Agriculture for natural resources and environment, said at his Senate confirmation hearing that he also takes issue with people calling those conflicts “disputes,” preferring to call them “disagreements” that can be resolved through talks with the agency.
Federal officials have called on him to remove a cabin built on Forest Service property; neighbors have clashed with him over an airstrip he built.
“Typically they’ve been very aggressive at the beginning of those disagreements, and eventually when they got the facts and we talked through it and we had reasonable discussions, we’ve always come around to a settlement that works for everyone,” Boren told the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.
