U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT NEWS RELEASE
Lewistown Field Office
Lewistown Field Office
| Contacts: | Craig Flentie | |||
| (406) 538-1943 |
Enjoy Your Public Lands, Be Cautious About Wildland Fire
Lewistown, MT----As we head into the summer camping season, the Bureau of Land Management’s Lewistown Field Office is encouraging everyone to use, enjoy and care for America’s public land.
It’s the time of year when more people begin traveling to their public lands to camp, hike, fish or just relax for a while; which is great. It’s also the time of year when the vegetation begins to dry and wildland fire becomes a constant concern for land managing agencies like the BLM.
With the wildland fire concerns in mind, the Lewistown Field Office would like to remind those visiting public land to keep their motorized vehicles on existing-open roads and trails; that fireworks are prohibited on public lands; and that camping on undeveloped public land is limited to 16 consecutive days.
“It’s a great time of year to visit your public land and we encourage everyone to make the most of the great outdoors; we also encourage everyone to adhere to these few guidelines to help us all avoid man caused wildland fires,” offered Kelly McGill, a recreation planner with the BLM’s Lewistown Field Office.
Past experience has shown that there are several primary sources that start wildland fires. Those sources include; lightning, campfires, smoking, debris burning, incendiary, equipment use, railroad traffic, children, fireworks and a variety of miscellaneous causes (power lines, blasting, welding, etc.).
Enjoy your public lands, but please be cautious about any activity that could start a wildland fire.
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.
Lewistown Field Office 920 NE Main Lewistown, Montana 59457