Principles of Resource Management Planning

Congress has outlined a number of principles to guide BLM in its land use planning efforts. When BLM develops or revises Resource Management Plans, it must:

• follow the principles of multiple use and sustained yield;
  
• use a systematic, interdisciplinary approach, fully considering physical, biological, economic, and social aspects of public land management;
  
• a identify, designate, protect and specially manage areas of critical environmental concern;
  
• consider relative significance of the public land products, services, and use to local economies;
  
• rely on the inventory of the public lands, their resources, and other values, to the extent such information is available;
  
• consider present and potential uses of the public lands;
  
• consider impact of Federal actions on adjacent or nearby non Federal lands and on private land surface over Federally-owned subsurface minerals;
  
• consider the relative scarcity of the values involved and the availability of alternative means (including recycling) and sites for realization of those values;
  
• weigh long-term benefits and consequences of proposed actions against short-term benefits and consequences;
  
• comply with applicable pollution control laws, including State and Federal air, water, noise, and other pollution standards and plans;
  
• to the extent consistent with the public laws, coordinate with the resource planning and management programs of other Federal departments and agencies, States and local governments, and Indian tribes; and
  
• provide the public with early notice and frequent opportunities to participate in the preparation of plans.

You are encouraged to provide comments on the design and utility of these site materials. In the future a questionnaire will be included to solicit your comments, including need for specific types of additional information.