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
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Bureau of Land Management For Release: Friday, April 9, 2001 Resourceful Management of Our Natural Resources Your Tax Dollars and the Public Lands |
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President Requests $1.8 Billion for FY 2002 Budget to Meet Public Land Management Challenges
President Bush today requested a Fiscal Year 2002 budget of almost $1.8 billion for the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
"Continued population growth in the West and last year's record fire season put the BLM to the test," Acting Director Nina Hatfield said. "Now we are challenged to help meet the Nation's critical energy needs. This year's budget will allow us to pursue our top priorities while we take steps to ensure that we are managing our organization as efficiently as possible."
The BLM's request emphasizes four major areas:
The request includes a $15 million program increase for the energy and mineral programs that the agency manages. This increase will ensure that the agency can meet the renewed demand to extract energy from the public lands in an acceptable and environmentally responsible manner. "Energy production is an important part of the BLM's multiple-use mandate, and we have great expertise to help support the expanding energy needs of our Nation," Hatfield said.
The request also includes a $7.1 million increase to continue updating the BLM's land use plans so that they address growing demand on America's public lands. The requested increase will allow the BLM to reach its goal of understanding the condition of public lands by evaluating and updating its existing plans. Currently, many of the agency's land use plans are outdated due to population growth, the emergence of new technologies, and new statutory, regulatory, and policy requirements.
The BLM's request represents a reduction of $374 million from 2001. The bulk of the reduction from the 2001 enacted level, however, is in wildland fire management and is related to one-time emergency and supplemental funding. The 2002 budget request for the BLM is an increase of $275.1 million, or 18 percent, over the 2000 level, reflecting a rate of increase that is more in line with comparable historical funding levels.
The budget request maintains support for other key activities such as:
The budget request includes $658.4 million for wildland fire management, which is more than double historical levels and $367.5 million above the enacted base funding level in 2000 of $291 million. The BLM's request will allow the Department of the Interior's wildland fire management agencies to focus on full implementation of the National Fire Plan, including building capacity in preparedness, ensuring responsive fire operations, and continuing support for rural fire departments.
The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages more land—264 million surface acres —than any other Federal agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, which has a workforce of about 9,000 employees, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the Nation. The BLM preserves open space by managing the public lands for multiple uses, including outdoor recreation, livestock grazing and mining, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on the public lands.
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