BLM Winnemucca gets temp director during Burning Man

With only a month before Burning Man, the BLM official usually tasked with overseeing the event's permitting process has been reassigned temporarily.

Winnemucca District Manager Gene Seidlitz began a 120-day assignment as acting deputy state director for minerals in the BLM's Nevada state office in Reno on Monday. He will return to his role in the Winnemucca office after November, according to a BLM statement early Monday evening.

Robert Towne, a 40-year veteran of the BLM, started as the acting Winnemucca District manager. He will be in charge of BLM operations outside of law enforcement at this year's Burning Man, which is scheduled for Aug. 30-Sept. 7.

The Winnemucca office each year is charged with issuing Burning Man's more than $4 million special recreation permit, the largest in the country. The permit allows 68,000 people to attend the celebration of arts and free expression in the Black Rock Desert during the week leading up to Labor Day.

Seidlitz will continue to work on the permit in an advisory capacity. It will be the first time that Towne, who is coming out of retirement to take the temporary position, will work on the Burning Man permit and event.

The Reno Gazette-Journal has not been able to reach Seidlitz since publishing an investigation that revealed the BLM's requests in early June for flushing toilets, washers and dryers and showers only for its highest level officials. Federal officials this year want to make day-or-two visits to the event to ensure that the event is operating safely and securely, Seidlitz said in previous interviews, since the BLM found a number of issues at last year's event.

State BLM officials and Burning Man organizers were supposed to meet throughout July, though neither organization's representatives have disclosed whether the state office has revised the BLM requests. Federal BLM Director Neil Kornze instructed the state office to make edits to the documents earlier this month.

"I have directed my team to take a top-to-bottom look at exactly what is needed to properly support BLM employees that have oversight responsibility for this enormous public event in a remote corner of Nevada," Kornze wrote in a Reno Gazette-Journal column. "Our revised proposal will include only what is essential for our core operational needs for providing appropriate health, safety, and environmental safeguards on the playa. That is our commitment."

Initially, the BLM requested that Burning Man pay for more than $1 million in ammenities, including the BLM headquarters, VIP compound and a number of luxuries not afforded to other BLM and government officials. The BLM wanted all of its employees to have mandatory, 24-hour access to ice cream, Chobani yogurt and chocolate milk, among other items.

Towne began his federal career in Coeur d'Alene National Forest in Idaho and then with the Salem, Eugene, and Prineville BLM Districts in Oregon. After serving five years as the Spokane District Manager, Towne became Deputy Assistant Director for the National Landscape Conservation System and Community Partnerships in Washington, D.C. In 2014, he also served as the interim District Manager for the BLM Eugene District.

He retired recently and since has been living in Spokane, Wash.

During Seidlitz's temporary reassignment, he will supervise the solid and fluid minerals program for the BLM throughout the state of Nevada. BLM Nevada has the largest mining program of any state BLM office, with 49 percent of the BLM's mining claims nationwide.

"All of us in the state office appreciate Gene's willingness to support the minerals program," said Acting Nevada State Director John Ruhs. "His experience will be a valuable asset as we continue to search for a permanent deputy state director. We also look forward to having Robert Towne's leadership and expertise in Winnemucca in the meantime."