BLM Proposes $1.8 Billion for FY 2005 Budget
To Enhance Multiple-Use Management through Conservation Partnerships
To promote conservation partnerships that enhance its multiple-use management
of the public lands, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) today proposed a Fiscal Year 2005 budget of $1.8 billion. The BLM’s
FY 2005 budget proposal, which is a $53 million programmatic increase
over the FY 2004 enacted level of funding, would provide increases of
$4.8 million for the agency’s resource-restoration Challenge Cost
Share program and $3.2 million for its sage-grouse conservation and restoration
efforts. The budget request also includes increases of $5.6 million for
land acquisition and $4 million for monitoring the implementation of new
land-use plans. The Bureau’s 2005 budget proposal redirects $10.5
million for management of the more than 39,000 wild horses and burros
that roam the public lands. Through a combination of new funds and redirected
funds, the budget proposes an increase of $12 million to improve the health
of forest lands in western Oregon.
“Our agency’s budget request supports cooperative conservation
projects and promotes citizen-based stewardship of the public lands,”
said BLM Director Kathleen Clarke. “This will advance the vision
of President Bush and Interior Secretary Gale Norton to empower citizens
to do what the government cannot do alone.”
Clarke noted that the Challenge Cost Share program has produced many
partnership success stories, including a multi-year project with the City
of Eugene, Oregon, that restored wetland habitat. Under the cost share
program, which strives for a one-to-one dollar match or better, the city
matched the BLM’s $150,000 contribution with $525,000 to remove
fill from 8.9 acres of historic prairie wetlands.
The $12 million in funding for forest management in western Oregon includes:
- $7 million in new funding for the BLM to begin revision of the six
resource management plans in western Oregon, which will enable the Bureau
to keep its commitments under the settlement of the lawsuit known as
American Forest Resource Council, et al. v. Clarke. Under this
settlement, the BLM agreed to fully fund the allowable sustainable timber
quantity under the Northwest Forest Plan, which will be achieved through
revision of these land use plans.
- $788,000 in new funding for timber harvesting in late successional
reserves, which will help remaining trees achieve old-growth characteristics
by protecting them from wildfire, insects, and disease. The budget also
redirects $3.7 million within the Jobs in the Woods program for this
effort.
- $500,000 in redirected funding for pre-commercial thinning in late
successional reserves, which will also foster old-growth characteristics.
- $3.7 million in redirected funding for commercial thinning in late
successional reserves to foster old-growth characteristics.
The BLM’s budget also seeks $1 million in new funding to implement
a variety of timber-related initiatives on public domain lands, including
stewardship contracting, a promising cost-effective tool for thinning
timber stands, and conducting other treatments that will improve forest
health.
The BLM’s proposed increase for the wild horse and burro program,
which totals $10.5 million, would be used for improved monitoring, population
census efforts, and fertility control. The proposed increase would be
offset with decreases to BLM programs benefiting from an achievement of
appropriate management levels and with reductions to lower-priority activities.
The funding increase for the wild horse and burro program would advance
the BLM’s long-term strategy to bring the number of wild horses
on public rangelands to appropriate management levels. Current levels
of removal and adoption of these animals are not keeping pace with the
herds’ population growth, a situation that creates the potential
for ecological imbalance and degradation of rangeland conditions, forage
resources, and wildlife habitat. The population of wild horses and burros
is more than 39,000; the Bureau’s national goal for the appropriate
management level is about 25,000.
The proposed $4 million increase for resource monitoring, which builds
on the $1.9 million for monitoring that was part of the President’s
2004 budget, would enable the BLM to collect better baseline data on the
condition of the public lands and the impacts of certain activities. This
funding request would strengthen the BLM’s management and protection
of such resources and help ensure that land-use plans and management decisions
achieve their intended results.
The $3.2 million in sage-grouse funding is aimed at preserving the habitat
of the sage-grouse, a game bird that depends on sagebrush for shelter
and food and whose numbers have been declining throughout the West. The
BLM, which manages more than 30 million acres of sage-grouse habitat (about
half of the bird’s remaining habitat), is developing a management
strategy in coordination with state wildlife agencies that seeks to prevent
a listing of the bird under the Endangered Species Act. Such a listing
would have negative effects on the BLM’s multiple-use mission, including
its management of livestock grazing, oil and gas activity, and outdoor
recreation.
To help the Nation meet its energy needs, the BLM’s budget proposal
would provide an $800,000 increase in the agency’s Land and Realty
Management program to enhance the permitting of renewable energy development
and the processing of rights-of-ways for both renewable and traditional
energy resources.
Additionally, the budget request includes $4 million in cost recovery
measures for the agency’s energy and minerals programs, which would
bring fees closer to administrative costs for certain services.
The BLM has also requested a $55.2 million programmatic program increase
above last year’s budget for the Department of the Interior’s
Wildland Fire Program. The budget proposes increases of $28.6 million
in additional funding for suppression operations to fund it at the 10-year
average and $25 million for hazardous fuels reduction. The budget also
includes a program increase of $6.5 million for fire preparedness. These
increases support the National Fire Plan, the President’s Healthy
Forests Initiative and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003.
Programs in the BLM budget funded below their 2004 enacted levels include
the Alaska Land Conveyance program ($8.9 million less than last year’s
level), which would return the program to the pace envisioned in the President’s
2004 budget; the BLM’s construction program (a $7.3 million decrease
from last year); and the cadastral or land-block legal boundary survey
program ($2.9 million below the 2004 level).
The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages more
land — 261 million surface acres — than any other Federal
agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 western states, including
Alaska. The Bureau also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral
estate throughout the nation. 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 the public lands.
include1
|
