The Bureau of Land Management has created a new public Website for locating and viewing information on communication sites. The information on the Website, accessible at www.blm.gov/commsites, is organized by state and the BLM field office where the communication site is located. Site-specific information is provided for sites that have draft or final communication plans.

 

The BLM authorizes the use of communication sites through its rights-of-way program.  Public land communication sites, which contain a variety of equipment and are usually located on mountaintops or other higher elevations, have one or more facilities (such as buildings, towers, and antennas) that are owned by private or governmental entities. Activities at these sites are managed locally by the BLM through its land-use plans and communication site management plans.

 

“The BLM is excited to provide this information to the public through a new, dynamic Website,” said BLM Director Jim Caswell. “Detailed communication site information has previously been unavailable to the public, but with people’s increased communication-based demands, the BLM decided it needed to respond by providing this type of access.”

 

The BLM’s communication site Website contains general information, such as the agency’s management policies, rent schedules, contact information, and frequently asked questions. For many communication sites, the Website also provides site-specific, detailed maps, pictures of the facilities, management plans, and a listing of the facilities and users at the site, as well as the BLM serial number authorizing use of the facility with a link to serial register pages from the Bureau’s Legacy Rehost 2000 System (www.blm.gov/lr2000). The serial register page contains detailed information about the authorizing right-of-way grant. From the BLM serial register page, users are able to access an interactive map of the communications site from BLM’s National Integrated Land System’s (NILS) GeoCommunicator (www.geocommunicator.gov).

 

For more information on communication sites located on BLM-managed lands, please contact Bil Weigand at 208-373-3863 (bweigand@blm.gov), or Scott Forssell at 208-769-5044 (sforssell@blm.gov).

 

The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages more land—258 million surface acres—than any other Federal agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 Western States, including Alaska. 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.

 

– BLM –