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Last updated: 04/04/03

BLM Requests $141 Million Increase in
Budget to Meet Public Land Management Challenges

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is requesting a fiscal year 2001 budget of $1.48 billion -- up $141 million over the FY2000 enacted level of funding.

"The West's rapid growth and increasingly urban nature is placing new and complex demands on the BLM," Acting Director Tom Fry said. "We're facing significant workload and workforce challenges. It's time we start investing in our precious public land resources for future generations."
The BLM's request emphasizes four major areas:

• Land Use Planning for Sustainable Resource Decisions;
  
• Restoration of Threatened Watersheds;
  
• Public Land Treasures; and
  
• Safe Visits.
  

The request includes an increase of $19 million dedicated to updating the BLM's land-use plans, and to conducting environmental reviews of uses that require the Bureau's authorization. These small steps will ensure that the agency can meet the challenge of conserving open space in an era of growth, and will help BLM meet its legal obligations to make land-use decisions based on sound and current information. Currently, many of BLM's land-use plans, which must be developed with extensive public input and are used to determine what activities are allowed on public lands, are outdated due to changes in Western landscapes and population growth.

"Trying to do right by our public users with the planning base we now have is difficult, if not impossible," Fry said. "We owe it to people who make their living from the public lands or enjoy them for recreational activities or for their habitat values to make sure our land use decisions are sound."

Other highlights include:

• A $14 million increase for the restoration of threatened watersheds, essential to the health of Western lands. This includes $3.5 million for clean water, $1.5 million to address the spread the invasive weeds, and $9 million to manage exploding wild horse and burro populations. Fry said the BLM will do all it can to protect and improve the West's most vital resource. "The growing cities and towns of the West look to watersheds managed by the BLM to assure them supplies of clean water," he said.

• A $16 million increase for Public Land Treasures, which includes funds to manage three new National Monuments in Arizona and California. The newly designated areas, which were already on BLM-managed public land, are:

• the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in Arizona,
• the Agua Fria National Monument, also in Arizona,
• and the California Coastal National Monument.

"These public land treasures and other special areas will help keep the West the special place we love," Fry said. "With increasing populations throughout the West, these areas ensure that we won't lose the wide open spaces that define the West."

• An increase of $3 million for the BLM's safe visits initiative. "With the explosion in recreational visits to the public lands over the past several years, we need to do everything in our power to enhance public safety," Fry said. "For example, throughout much of the West, dangerous abandoned mines still exist on public lands. Our goal is to reduce such hazards.

• A request of $135 million for Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT), up $615,000 over last year. These payments help counties provide vital services to local communities. "This is the largest PILT budget ever requested by any administration," Fry said. "This funding will enable the Federal government to meet its responsibilities to rural areas throughout the West."

• An increase of $3 million for the management of Oregon and California (O&C) lands so that BLM can survey and manage species that may be affected by ground-disturbing activities on Federal lands. This will enable the agency to remain committed to offering the full allowable sale quantity of timber of 211 mmbf in future years. The BLM is also seeking an additional $450,000 for road maintenance and to restore salmon habitat on O&C lands as part of the BLM's Safe Visits initiative.

The BLM, an agency of the Department of the Interior, protects and manages 264 million acres of public lands primarily located in the 12 Western States, including Alaska. The agency manages an additional 300 million acres of subsurface mineral estate located throughout the country.

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