Biker on trail looking out at sunset.

Special Planning Designations

BLM land use plans that contain one or more special designations call for these areas to be managed with a particular focus of providing for public recreation or conserving particularly significant resources. These special designations may include: 

Special Recreation Management Areas (SRMAs) |  SRMAs provide specific for recreational opportunities, such as trailhead areas for hikers, mountain bikers or off-road vehicle users.  

Wilderness Areas |  In 1964, Congress passed the Wilderness Act, which defined wilderness areas as places “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” The BLM is responsible for 223 Wilderness Areas encompassing more than 8.7 million acres in 10 Western States and manages these lands to ensure that they maintain these wilderness characteristics.

Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) |  In 1976, under FLPMA, Congress directed the BLM to review the roadless areas it managed to determine if they met certain standards for wildness. After an extensive public involvement process, the BLM in 1980 designated about 25 million acres of lands that met these standards as WSAs. Since that time, Congress has reviewed some of these areas and has designated some as wilderness and released others for non-wilderness uses. Until Congress makes a final determination on a WSA, the BLM manages these areas to preserve their suitability for designation as wilderness. 

Under FLPMA, Congress also directed the BLM to maintain and update an inventory of lands that met the Wilderness Act’s wilderness standards. Conditions relating to wilderness characteristics may change over time, so the BLM continues to maintain and update this inventory. Changes to this inventory do not change those lands designated as WSAs. Learn more about lands with wilderness characteristics.

Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) |  ACEC designations are unique to the BLM and highlight areas where special management attention is needed to protect important historical, cultural, and scenic values, or fish and wildlife or other natural resources, or to protect human life and safety from natural hazards. ACECs can only be designated during the land-use planning process.