National MonumentThe BLM is a diverse and geographically dispersed agency charged with the complex mission of managing 264 million acres of public lands and their myriad resources across some 30 States. The Bureau's workforce includes more than 10,000 permanent, temporary, seasonal, and other employees located in over 200 headquarters, center, and field offices.
In managing the Nation's vast public land holdings, the BLM performs many tasks: resource inventory, land use planning, environmental impact assessment, land surveying, road construction, fish and wildlife habitat restoration, and resource condition monitoring, to name a few.
All of these activities involve working together with many different partners, stakeholders, and customers, including:
Effective partnerships and continuous customer feedback are essential to managing our Nation's public lands and the wealth of resources they offer.
Along with our partners, our customers, elected officials, and the general public, we are working hard to restore and maintain the health of America's public lands . . . and ultimately the health of our Nation and its many diverse peoples.
"Synergy is everywhere in nature . . . . If you put two pieces of wood together, they will hold much more than the total of the weight held by each separately. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. One plus one equals three or more."
Stephen R. Covey
It is the mission of the Bureau of Land Management to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.
National MonumentThe Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, created by Presidential Proclamation September 18, 1996, is a dramatic, multi-hued landscape that is rich in natural and human history. Extending across 1.7 million acres of Utah public lands managed by the BLM, the Monument represents a unique combination of archeological, historical, paleontological, geological, and biological resources. The Bureau is working closely with State and local government officials and citizens to protect the land while allowing, within the proper conservation context, a number of traditional uses that will help keep people on the land and preserve our Western heritage.
Studies indicate that 94.5% of the U.S. population participates in some form of outdoor recreation, and the demand for recreation will continue to expand as the U.S. population increases.
Of the total $1.4 billion in annual revenues from BLM-managed lands, energy and minerals generated over $1.3 billion (most of which was collected by the Minerals Management Service) from mineral royalties, rents, bonuses, sales, and fees. Energy and minerals also generated 98% of the total $12.4 billion of production value from the public lands. The total direct and indirect economic output impact of the mineral production value amounted to $26.6 billion out of the $27.5 billion total in commercial activities.
Livestock GrazingThe BLM authorizes livestock grazing for more than 17,000 operators on about 164 million acres of public land in 16 Western States, providing nearly 9.8 million animal unit months of grazing. A total of 88% of the cattle produced in Idaho, 64% of the cattle in Wyoming, and 63% of the cattle in Arizona graze at least part of the year on public rangelands.
Wild Horses and BurrosIn 1997, a total of 10,443 wild horses and burros were removed from the range, with 8,692 animals adopted through BLM's popular Adopt-A-Horse or Burro program. The remaining animals are still in our facilities awaiting adoption. The Adopt-A-Horse or Burro program is very active in the continental United States. Approximately 100 adoptions are held across the country each year.
The Bureau inventoried 623,170 acres for cultural resources, recorded 9,939 properties, and issued or had in effect 448 study or management permits (excluding permits for paleontological collecting). To date, the Bureau has inventoried a total of 12.9 million acres and recorded 212,342 cultural resource properties. Of these, 241 are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with 22 listed as National Historic Landmarks.
The BLM continued its stewardship of 136 Congressionally designated wilderness areas (5.3 million acres) and its management of 622 wilderness study areas (18 million acres). The Bureau also continued to manage 34 Wild and Scenic River segments totaling 2,022 miles and exercised stewardship responsibilities for eight National Conservation Areas (11.7 million acres), one National Scenic Area (65,000 acres), one National Recreation Area (1 million acres), 43 National Natural Landmarks (600,000 acres), 100 Research Natural Areas (326,000 acres), and two Globally Important Bird Areas (56,500 acres).
The Bureau suppressed 2,046 wildland fires on BLM lands that burned a total of 1,037,144 acres and helped suppress an additional 624 fires on 468,788 acres of non-BLM lands. Overall, 80% of these fires were controlled at 10 acres or less and 90% were controlled at 100 acres or less.
This past year, the BLM carried out 162 removal actions (short-term, rapid responses to hazardous substance releases) and conducted 11 remedial actions (longer-term responses leading to a permanent remedy). Among these was the cleanup of the Monite Explosives site in Sparks, Nevada; several thousand cubic yards of soil contaminated with TNT and DNT were removed to hazardous waste disposal facilities. This is the largest cleanup that the Bureau has ever conducted.
The Bureau's work on the Automated Land and Mineral Record System (ALMRS) moved forward this past year with capability demonstration assessments, development of an ALMRS transition/deployment plan for BLM's State Offices, and staffing assessments/site readiness reviews for four States and the Bureau's National Centers. Data has been collected and verified for 24,363 townships (77% of the total townships planned) for inclusion in the Geographic Coordinate Database; 22,126 townships (70%) are ready for input into ALMRS.
Each year, the Bureau calculates and remits the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) to counties. These payments are designed to offset property tax shortfalls (under a Congressional formula) occurring in counties with public land holdings. The 1997 level was virtually the same as that for 1996, with both years being significantly higher than the FY 1994 and 1995 levels.
Community-Based PlanningIn fiscal year 1997, the BLM expedited the review of planning protests to complete six Resource Management Plans (RMPs) along with integrated Environmental Impact Statements (EISs). Five RMPs are in progress and one new RMP will begin in FY 1998.
The Bureau's Volunteer Program continues to be successful, making an enormous contribution to BLM's efforts and successes. Bureauwide, 16,522 participants worked a total of 1,139,074 hours for a cash value to the BLM of $11,750,928 in FY 1996 (the most recent year for which data is available). The programs attracting the most interest were recreation (48%), biological resources and wild horses & burros (both 13%), and cultural and historical resources (8%).
The Bureau is developing a Management Information System (MIS) that will meet the agency's need for simpler, more flexible systems and meet BLM managers' needs for business information. In FY 1997, initial prototyping of the financial data system occurred, with full implementation of the financial and budgetary data module plus initial billings and collections, performance data, and property data modules scheduled for late FY 1998. The Bureau has also redesigned its entire acquisition system to save an estimated $1 million internally, as well as savings on the cost of the goods and services themselves--perhaps as much as $12 million by the year 2000.
Under the Trading Post Initiative, the Bureau has joined with the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado and Oregon to provide "one-stop shopping" for the public. The BLM has also refined its customer research methodology and conducted customer satisfaction surveys of State and local government officials, stakeholders and partners, and wild horse and burro adopters.
The Bureau, through its National Training Center in Phoenix, expanded its use of satellite broadcast technology to present training (16 live broadcast days reaching more than 10,000 students through 122 downlink sites); this significantly reduced travel costs and time away from the job for field offices. The BLM also completed a multiyear Workforce Diversity Program Plan and revitalized its cooperative work-study education program. 
The Bureau has issued its first Strategic Plan under the Government Performance and Results Act, which requires all agencies to have strategic plans, performance measures, and a way to evaluate progress toward their goals. BLM's Strategic Plan, which outlines the mission-oriented goals and objectives for the agency over the next 3 to 5 years, is an overarching statement of priorities, future direction, and performance goals for the Bureau. Resource allocations (i.e., which programs and offices get funding) and daily operational decisions are already starting to be linked to the Strategic Plan through a required Annual Performance Plan that will be transmitted to Congress.
