The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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Last updated: 04/04/03
Contacts: Celia Boddington, (202) 452-5128 or
Ray Brady, (202) 452-7773
For Immediate Release: August 14, 1998
BLM Director Shea Announces Formation of a National Land Exchange Evaluation and Assistance Team
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Pat Shea announced today the formation of a National Land Exchange Evaluation and Assistance Team to provide assistance and oversight to the agency's field offices on land exchanges involving federal BLM lands.
"By strengthening our land exchange program, the BLM can continue to acquire lands with high public values while protecting the interests of American taxpayers," Shea said. "With the formation of this Team, we will provide additional professional expertise to help ensure that procedures and regulations governing exchanges are consistently applied and followed, particularly in unusual or complicated cases." The Team was the product of a BLM work group involving headquarters and field staff, which evaluated different critical reports of the BLM land exchange activities over the last five years. The Inspector General of the Department of the Interior provided several reports with suggestions evaluated by the Team.
The BLM, with stewardship of more than 264 million acres of land primarily in the West - more than any other federal agency - completes 60 to 70 land exchanges every year. On average each year, these exchanges involve roughly 150,000 acres of land, and values of about $50 million. Shea said the Team is being formed in response to public concerns regarding the agency's procedures on some controversial exchanges. Over the years, there has been occasional criticism that BLM has not consistently followed exchange procedures and regulations. Shea intends to address these concerns in a proactive manner and take corrective actions before BLM is irreversibly committed to exchange transactions.
"While the vast majority of exchanges present no problems, improvements can be made to our program so that we can be sure every exchange involving BLM lands is in the best interest of our country," he said. Shea said exchanges are an important management tool because they allow the BLM to acquire the kind of land that is suited to public ownership: land with high conservation values as habitat for wildlife including threatened or endangered species; land that offers recreational opportunities for the public; or land containing sensitive riparian areas that are critical to the health of streams, rivers and entire watersheds.
In turn, states, counties or private
developers can obtain land that is better suited for local management or that will serve
the development or expansion needs of growing communities, he said. The Team, consisting
of staff from both the agency's headquarters office in Washington, D.C. and field office
positions, will include a Team leader and two senior land specialists. The Team will also
be able to draw on the expertise of other field office specialists, such as appraisers,
land law examiners, and natural resource specialists as needed. The BLM will also evaluate
options to consider other means of increasing objective input in the review of land
exchanges. These options could include participation by the BLM Resource Advisory Councils
or other federal agency representation on land exchange evaluation teams.
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