Obama nominates Elko woman to be BLM director

President Barack Obama has nominated Neil Kornze to become director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Kornze was raised in Elko and is a former senior adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Since March he has been leading the BLM as the agency’s principal deputy director.

The agency oversees more than 245 million acres of public lands nationwide, including about 48 million acres in Nevada.

Kornze joined the BLM in 2011 as a senior adviser to the director, working on a range of issues including renewable and conventional energy development and conservation policy.