Interior said in its motion that Loewen was fired in November 2021 “based on his unacceptable performance and failure to follow instructions.”
Peter Jenkins, a senior counsel for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is representing Loewen in the matter, countered in a separate motion that Culver’s testimony on the formal comments she co-authored and submitted to BLM in 2019 would help corroborate Loewen’s concerns that he reported to his superiors about impacts to migratory birds if the 5,000-well project moved forward. This would help undermine BLM’s contention that his termination was justified, he said.
Culver and John Rader, a conservation advocate with the Wyoming Outdoor Council, wrote in their formal analysis of the project that BLM needed to develop a migratory bird conservation plan that “would establish and evaluate conservation measures for raptors, require monitoring, and establish adaptive management protocols.”
