At the end of November, after more than seven years as the district manager for the Coos Bay District Bureau of Land Management, Sue Richardson will move to Washington, D.C., to work for the assistant secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management.

But if she has her way, Richardson may not be gone from the Pacific Northwest for long.

The position she accepted two weeks ago is not permanent, lasting for three years. One of her goals is to become a state director, or associate director, for the Bureau of Land Management back in the Northwest.

“This has been a wonderful place to call home,” Richardson said. “I’ve enjoyed working with folks who care about this place, both the natural resources and the community.”

For the next three years, Richardson, 55, will be a staff assistant serving as a liaison between BLM and the Department of the Interior. While BLM director here, Richardson led about 150 people and worked with an annual budget of $15 million.

In D.C., Richardson, a Texas native, will not oversee anyone.

Still, she described the new job, which is not a political appointment, as high-level, high-stress, but one she said she is looking forward to nonetheless.

“The action at the level is 50 percent political,” Richardson said. “You’re trying to find a balance or a convergence between the agency’s best management practices and trying to come as close as possible to fitting that with the political drivers and Congress.”

Richardson will work on the nation’s energy policy and how it relates to legislative issues and serve as an advisor to the assistant secretary and the BLM director on legislative planning. Land Mineral Management oversees not only BLM, but the Minerals Management Service and the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement.

As the BLM director in Coos Bay, Richardson said her day-to-day life was governed primarily by evolving issues related to the Northwest Forest Plan, land-use and the Endangered Species Act. She will leave those topics behind and instead focus on how to manage the nation’s energy resources, from coal and oil to renewable sources of energy.

The bureau of Land and Mineral Management is responsible for the production of about 35 percent of the nation’s domestic oil, natural gas and coal supplies.

Richardson admits she did not delve into many mineral issues while on the South Coast, however, she has tackled those energy issues before for BLM. Richardson, who has been with BLM since 1980 and who earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in sociology, held positions as a sociologist for BLM in California, as a wilderness program leader in Arizona and as an associate district manager in Albuquerque, N.M.

In her role as a sociologist, Richardson said she analyzes the socioeconomic impact of how BLM policies affect ranchers, timber companies and others in the surrounding community.

Richardson also has served on the Coos County Airport District Board and is a member of the Coos Bay-North Bend Rotary Club and the Coos County Historical Society Board of Trustees. Her election to the airport board provided an “excellent low-level practice” for what is in store for her in D.C., she said.

“It made the difference,” she said. “It showed that this person has some political awareness.”

Richardson was re-elected this year to a four-year term on the airport board. The board will seek to find her replacement in the coming weeks, she said.

She said she will miss working on the South Coast.

“Whatever I do it needs to be better when I leave,” she said. “But I have no need to be an essential person. This place is full of excellent employees, whether I’m here or not.”

A good-bye reception for Richardson is tentatively scheduled to be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, at the BLM office on Airport Lane.