Outstanding Public Lands Professional Employee Award

Technical/Operational Category

Lance Okeson

The Public Lands Foundation is proud to present the 2024 Outstanding Public Lands Professional Employee Award in the Technical/Operational category to Lance Okeson, BLM Boise District Fuels Assistant Fire Management Officer.

Mr. Okeson’s position as the Assistant Fire Management Officer for the Fuels program in the Boise District has enabled him to develop a broad and nuanced vision for the role that fuel breaks could play in addressing the challenge of altered fire regimes throughout the western US.  Mr. Okeson not only became an advocate for the presence of fuel breaks on a scale heretofore not seen, but he also began to advocate a vision for what fuel breaks fundamentally are and innovative ways that fuel breaks can be put in place.

Mr. Okeson was the driving force behind several fuelbreak projects, including 1) the Tipanook Fuelbreak Project that proved the concept that the low-growing plant called forage kochia could be introduced in swaths of land and serve as an effective fuelbreak; 2)  the Tri-State Fuelbreak Project, which proved the effectiveness of large-scale interconnected fuel breaks on a regional scale; and 3) the Soda Fuelbreak Project, which was the first time BLM Idaho implemented targeted grazing on a large scale that demonstrated that livestock grazing could be managed temporally and spatially to achieve strategic reductions in fuel loads in designated corridors, which in effect became fuel breaks.

In bringing these projects from the conceptual stage to implementation, Mr. Okeson has demonstrated unparalleled managerial ability.  His influence mobilized natural resource specialists to work toward a common goal and to navigate through the various federal administrative processes inherent in public land management planning.

Mr. Okeson’s career has served as an example to younger BLM employees and has demonstrated that a focus on fuels management is not merely a subset of fire management but rather one that can make a difference in entire ecosystems and economies for decades.  Mr. Okeson’s vision and work have embodied the concepts of public land stewardship, as opposed to merely managing programs.

Mr. Okeson’s innovative approaches, collaborative spirit, and numerous achievements have had a profound, sustained and far-reaching impact across the northern expanse of the Great Basin.

Because of his commitment to public land management, the Public Lands Foundation recognizes Lance Okeson with its Outstanding Public Lands Professional Award in the Technical/Operational category for 2024.

/s/ Mary Jo Rugwell                                                                                           October 8, 2024