ARC Honors BLM Partnerships for Innovation in Visitor Service and Recreation Management

The American Recreation Coalition (ARC) will present two Beacon Awards on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management to the BLM-New Mexico State Office—Public Lands Interpretative Association (PLIA) partnership and to Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado in recognition of their innovative use of technology in visitor services and recreation management. The two sets of honorees will be among several agency, congressional, and recreation officials receiving awards at the Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award Celebration during Great Outdoors Week 2006 (June 11-16) in Washington, D.C.

“It is a privilege to honor these people whose ability and dedication are helping improve visitors’ experiences on the public lands,” said BLM Deputy Director Jim Hughes in presenting the awards.

The first set of honorees, the BLM-PLIA partnership, completed the online Public Information Center (PLIC), a one-stop online resource for a wide variety of visitor information and recreation management services in 2005 using existing technologies and creative public-private partnerships. The PLIC project team, comprising BLM-New Mexico, PLIA, Queenellen Enterprises and 1 uffakind Design constructed a web-based version of the existing BLM-PLIA New Mexico Public Lands Information Center in Santa Fe using BLM innovation grants, and now only relies on the Bureau for information updates. The website (www.publiclands.org), maintained and operated by PLIA, provides the following:

• dynamic, interactive land use and recreation maps;
• quick (within 24 hours) telephone and e-mail response to visitor inquiries;
• accurate public land status information updated via a Content Management System (CMS);
• accurate local fire information from the NMPLIC;
• a comprehensive, revenue-generating Map Center and store for maps and related educational materials; and
• the BLM’s Golden Eagle Passports (recreation pass).

The second set of Beacon Award honorees, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, created V Outdoors, a web-based clearinghouse for outdoor recreation providers and volunteers throughout the state. The website (www.voutdoors.org) enables land management agencies such as BLM-Colorado and conservation organizations to recruit and communicate with volunteers via the V Match search engine and volunteer opportunity database and online registration form, and to manage volunteer events via online logs of work hours and opportunity value reports. Participating agencies and organizations can also use the site as a secure database for their volunteer registry and to send e-mails to volunteers and other project partners. Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado currently receives strong support from all the land management agencies in the state. BLM-Colorado recommends its use by all its field offices in its 2005 Volunteer Strategy and through a link at Volunteers.gov.

Since 2005, the Beacon Awards program, jointly administered by the ARC and federal agencies hosting more than a billion recreation visits annually, have encouraged experimentation with and use of new technologies and alternate communication channels to enhance visitor experiences and improve recreation program management. This year, participating agencies were allowed to nominate two technology-based, cost-effective initiatives that addressed recreation program needs, for final selection by a special ARC-appointed assembly. The assembly also evaluated the nominees based on their use of creative public-private partnerships, dissemination of creative solutions within the agency, and community support for their projects.

The public can access a complete listing of Great Outdoors Week events and activities by visiting the following website: http://www.funoutdoors.com/taxonomy/view/or/75

The BLM 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, with a budget of about $1.8 billion, 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, and cultural resources on the public lands.

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