Dillon Field Office
| Contacts: | Contact David Abrams 406-533-7617 |
BLM To Analyze East Grasshopper, Medicine Lodge Watersheds
The Bureau of Land Management’s Dillon Field Office will analyze the existing resource conditions on BLM-administered public lands within the East Grasshopper and Medicine Lodge Watersheds this summer.
The East Grasshopper Watershed includes 16 grazing allotments and 79,000 acres of BLM-administered public land. The Medicine Lodge Watershed includes 16 grazing allotments and 39,000 acres of BLM-administered public land. The five standards for rangeland health will be reviewed on an allotment-by-allotment basis to determine whether or not the standards are being met.
Standards include: maintaining properly functioning upland and riparian areas, assuring that water quality and air quality meet state standards, and providing for biodiversity. Forest health, fuels conditions and conifer encroachment issues are also included within the land health standards. Where standards for land health are not met, contributing factors will be identified and recommendations for corrective action will be developed and presented by the interdisciplinary team.
National Environment Policy Act documents will be prepared next winter to analyze alternatives for revised management where resource concerns are found within these watersheds.
The assessments, determinations and any necessary NEPA documents will be completed by resource specialists from the Dillon Field Office in coordination with permittees/lessees, other agencies and the interested public.
If you would like to know more about this process or have information or data that may be helpful to BLM, please call (406) 683-8000 or email MT_Dillon_FO@blm.gov.
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.
Dillon Field Office 1005 Selway Dillon, MT 59725