BLM takes flight to Springfield location.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

The taxidermy birds will not be going with the Bureau of Land Management when the Eugene district office moves this week from its North Eugene digs near Costco to east Springfield.

But the maps will go, as will the front-office mural, painted by a former employee, and so will most of the 150 or so full- and part-time employees.

The BLM has begun moving into the Lane County Armed Forces Reserve Center, the $39 million, 170,000-square-foot complex that also houses local units of the Oregon Army National Guard, the Marine and Navy Reserves and their military recruiters, and the U.S. Forest Service.

The moving vans began loading up boxes and office furniture on Monday, and the Chad Drive office will be closed on Thursday and Friday as workers begin unpacking at the new location. Phones will not work either of those days, although callers will hear a recorded message. The BLM will be open to the public in Springfield beginning next Monday, said district spokesman Doug Huntington.

The federal agency that manages timber on public forests in the Lane County area has been at the Chad Drive location for 19 years, Huntington said.

The move to Springfield could save some taxpayer money by consolidating federal agencies under one roof, he said. While the BLM hasn't done a specific economic analysis on the move, Huntington believes there will be savings for taxpayers. The National Guard and Reserves mostly use the building on weekends, while the Forest Service and BLM will use it weekdays, he said.

The BLM and Forest Service also work closely together on a range of natural resource and recreation issues, so being housed together makes sense, he said. It can also be helpful to people seeking maps or permits from both agencies or for those confused about which federal agency they want to communicate with, Huntington said.

Those who work at the agency's front desk estimate that about 25 people visit daily. It gets busier on Wednesdays in the winter, the day the BLM processes permits for those gathering forest products such as mushrooms.

But not everyone will be heading southeast. A handful of BLM employees who work in the road maintenance department will transfer over to a Lane County office on North Delta Highway. And as for those birds, they won't be tucked away in some obscure storage building, Huntington said.

The enormous golden eagle will be on permanent loan to the Cascades Raptor Center, while the smaller birds - the sharp-shinned hawk, the merlin and the Northern goshawk among them - will go to the West Eugene Wetlands office. Huntington believes the birds will be seen by more people at those locations. The shared reception area of the new building didn't have room for them, he said.

As for the about-to-be-vacated buildings - the 30,000-square-foot office building and the 20,000-square-foot storage building - its current owner, Arlie & Company, has plans to remodel it to suit new tenants, said Arlie spokeswoman Sadie Dresseke.

Arlie will seek LEED certification, a designation by the Green Building Council recognizing energy-efficient construction. The Green Building Council has developed new criteria for remodeling existing buildings in addition to its new construction guidelines, Dresseke said. No prospective tenants have been willing to spend the extra money required by LEED certification, despite the environmental advantages, Dresseke said.

The BLM will not change the district name from Eugene to Springfield after the move, Huntington said. That's in keeping with other BLM Oregon district offices, such as the Coos Bay District located in North Bend and the Burns District located in Hines, Huntington said.

The combined BLM and Forest Service offices will get an additional moniker: the Springfield Interagency Office, he said.

MOVING ON

The BLM Eugene office moves to Springfield this week

Where: 3106 Pierce Parkway, Springfield

When: The new office is open to the public beginning Monday, June 22

No change: Some things, such as phone numbers and the mailing address, remain the same. Call the BLM at [phone]. Write to them at P.O. Box 10226, Eugene, OR 97440.