Braun was distraught over the potential loss of Carrizo's grassland to grazing, according to Katherine Hermes, Braun's friend and executor of her estate. Braun became embroiled in a feud with her boss, Ron Huntsinger, Hermes said, who Braun felt was trying to roll back conservation at the monument.

"I think there was bullying going on," Hermes said. "I think Huntsinger should be fired."

Braun killed herself and her two dogs in May, a little more than a year after Huntsinger arrived in Bakersfield, according to previously published reports in the Los Angeles Times.

Attempts to speak with Huntsinger or other BLM staff at the Bakersfield field office were routed to a spokeswoman in Sacramento, who confirmed the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General is investigating the case.

BLM director Kathleen Clarke requested the investigation two to three weeks ago, said Roy Kime, spokesman for the inspector general's office.

"She just wanted a fresh set of eyes to look at what's going on out there," he said. "I think it's more of a general personnel investigation ... than it is specifically aimed at (Braun's) suicide."

Kime wouldn't say which offices inspectors will visit, or when they'll arrive, but he did confirm that Bakersfield's field office is the investigation's starting point.

The inspector general's office investigates "fraud, waste and abuse" in the U.S. Department of the Interior. If investigators find wrongdoing, they will publish a report to help BLM management decide what action to take, if any.

The length of the investigation depends on what they find, Kime said.

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The advocacy group PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) demanded an investigation. Read their June 10, 2005 letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton. (in .pdf format)

The PEER website