Bill Thompson Oral History Interview

Oral history interview by Mary Heers with Bill Thompson. Topics include: His thirty-eight year career with the Bureau of Land Management and retirement; Living in New York and an interest in forestry; Wanting to attend Utah State University; A move to Idaho when he was in high school; A seasonal job with the Forest Service as fire lookout; Missionary service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Attending USU and earning a degree in range management; His first job with the BLM doing range inventory in New Mexico; A move to the BLM office in Moab; Working for the BLM office in Fillmore for twenty years; BLM in Fillmore covering nearly five million acres; Working with ranchers on range use, allotment rents, grazing permits, fencing, and pipelines for water; Differences in vegetation requirements for cattle and sheep; Enjoying the small town of Fillmore and the opportunity he has to ride his bike; Marriage and children; Efforts taken to improve the growth of alkali sacaton grass; Effects of forest fires on rangeland and actions taken to recover the range.

Mr. Bill Thompson recently retired from the BLM after a 38-year-long career with them. He worked for the BLM as a range scientist, and talks about the grazing permits, ranchers, and how they all worked together to take care of the land. Before his range management job, he worked on BLM fire crew and also as a fire lookout.