Barrasso opposes Biden pick for Land Management director, claiming ties to 'eco-terrorists'

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso on Friday came out strongly against President Joe Biden's pick to head the Bureau of Land Management, citing her reported ties to an extremist environmental group decades ago. 

Barrasso told the Washington Times that BLM Director nominee Tracy Stone-Manning "collaborated with eco-terrorists" while in graduate school years ago, when she allegedly worked with the group Earth First!, editing the organization's ideological journal. 

Barrasso claimed Earth First! activists "spiked trees" as part of their eco-defense policy, and that Stone-Manning herself "was given immunity from prosecution to testify against her companions in court."

For the last several years Stone-Manning has worked for the National Wildlife Federation and was previously the director of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.