BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT (BLM)

An agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior responsible for the stewardship of the nation's public lands. The Bureau of Land Management is committed to the sustained management, protection, and improvement of these lands in a manner consistent with the needs of the American people. The BLM's management philosophy is based on the principles of multiple use and sustained yield of our nation's resources within a framework of environmental responsibility and scientific technology. The resources under the BLM's oversight include recreation, rangelands, timber, minerals, watersheds, fish and wildlife, wilderness, air, and scenic, scientific and cultural values. The BLM oversees the largest natural resource base in the federal government. This base includes 270 million acres of public lands ranging from old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest to sun drenched desert ecosystems in the Southwest to Arctic tundra in Alaska. The BLM also supervises mineral leasing and operations on an additional 300 million acres of federal mineral estate that underlie other surface ownerships. BLM managed public lands provide habitat for thousands of wildlife and plant species, including some 220 federally-listed threatened and endangered species and 1,200 species considered candidates for listing. The BLM manages over 169,000 miles of fish bearing streams and more than 50 million acres of forested lands. In addition, the BLM is caretaker of an estimated 4 million cultural properties, including 400 listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The BLM also manages more than 1.6 million acres of designated wilderness and 22.8 million acres of wilderness study areas. More than 46,500 wild horses and burros roam BLM land in the West. The BLM permits and manages various uses of the public lands, including grazing, mining, recreation, and timber operations. These activities traditionally have been managed on an individual basis. However, more recently the BLM's management efforts have shifted to a more comprehensive ecosystem basis of managing such lands to insure sustained benefits for future generations of Americans. The Bureau of Land Management has its headquarters office in Washington, D.C. There are an additional eleven state offices for managing resources in the western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. BLM resources for the Eastern United States are managed out of Springfield, Virginia. The BLM also supports a National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho as well as a public information service center (SC) in Denver, Colorado and a centralized employee training center in Phoenix, Arizona. In Nevada alone, the BLM manages some 48 million acres of public lands or approximately 67 percent of all lands in Nevada.