Missoula Field Office
| Contacts: | Contact David Abrams 406-533-7617 |
Ram Mountain Grazing Lease Decision Remanded Back To BLM
The Department of Interior’s Administrative Law Judge Robert G. Holt has vacated the Ram Mountain Grazing Lease Decision and remanded it back to the Bureau of Land Management.
The action effectively dismisses an appeal filed by the Western Watersheds Project in June 2010 to allow the BLM’s Missoula Field Office to withdraw its Decision on the Ram Mountain Grazing Lease Environmental Assessment.
Withdrawal of the Decision enables the BLM to revisit the National Environmental Policy Act process for the Ram Mountain Allotment to consider a broader range of alternatives to address environmental issues associated with the allotment.
“I want to stress that we're not starting from square one,” said Rich Torquemada, Field Manager for the BLM Missoula Field Office. “There has been a lot of collaborative work between BLM staff, Montana State University Extension Service personnel, and the lessees that we will build upon. Our goal—as it has been all along—is to have a product which emphasizes improved rangeland and ecosystem health.”
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
Missoula Field Office 3255 Fort Missoula Road Missoula, MT 59804