A day to celebrate America’s public lands — including these 11 little-known #BLMWild gems
On September 30 we will celebrate National Public Lands Day, an opportunity for all of us to enjoy, support, and give back to America’s shared natural heritage. While some of our most well-known public lands include national parks, national forests, and national wildlife refuges, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages about 250 million acres ranging from the sagebrush sea to winding desert canyons to snow-capped peaks. Here are 11 more reasons to love being a public land owner — including some #BLMWild places you may have never heard of:
Rock Creek, Montana
Rock Creek, located along Montana’s “Hi-Line” north of the town of Saco, is characterized by a mix of native grasses, rugged canyons and coulees, with a perennial stream running through it. With long views, this 9,200 acre primitive area has been identified as having wilderness characteristics but remains unprotected in the region’s current BLM Resource Management Plan.
Proposed Birds of Prey Area of Critical Environmental Concern, New Mexico
The proposed Birds of Prey Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a peaceful and beautiful region of expansive Chihuahuan desert grasslands, limestone rock features and high-quality wildlife habitat extending from the northern reaches of the Guadalupe Mountains in southeast New Mexico. As its name implies, the combination of diverse desert grassland habitat broken by steep-walled cliffs provides excellent nesting and hunting grounds for birds of prey. Bald and golden eagles; northern harrier; sharp-shinned, red-tailed and ferruginous hawks; American kestrel; peregrine and prairie falcons, and burrowing and great-horned owls are just a short-list of the many avian species found here. This region is also important recovery habitat for the endangered Aplomado falcon. Located between two units of the Lincoln National Forest to the north and south, and the excellent wildlife habitat of Otero Mesa to the southwest, this important area is a centerpiece of thousands of acres of undeveloped lands. Its protection would maintain a vast area of contiguous wildlife habitat and wild lands for this and future generations.
St. Anthony Sand Dunes, Idaho
The BLM’s Upper Snake Field Office in eastern Idaho is home to the St. Anthony Sand Dunes, formed by lakeshore sands from Mud and Market Lakes as well as floodplain deposits from the Snake, Teton, and other rivers of the Snake River Plain. Many unique and sensitive species occupy the dunes including the Saint Anthony evening primrose and Saint Anthony Tiger Beetle (Cicindela arenicola Rumpp). Acres of sagebrush, juniper, and native grasses that circle the sand dunes on the proposed Easterly Dunes unit of lands with wilderness characteristics provides critical habitat for sage-grouse and winter range for elk, mule deer, and moose. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game established the adjacent Sand Creek Wildlife Management Area to support wildlife habitat, and areas to the west of the unit are closed seasonally to safeguard wintering big game from human disruption.
Beegum Creek, California
Beegum Creek is one of the most geophysically diverse places in the West, resulting from the uniqueness of the area’s serpentine soils and diverse landforms associated with the presence of a steep gorge. The area also provides critical habitat for threatened chinook salmon and steelhead. In this area, Beegum Creek was found eligible for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
Juniper Mountain, Oregon
The Juniper Mountain area in the Lakeview BLM district is a unique pocket of southern Oregon’s high desert. The horseshoe shaped mountain contains important wet meadow habitat for sage-grouse brood-rearing and is recognized as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) for an isolated stand of old growth juniper that grows on its upper reaches.
Kanarraville Creek, Utah
Kanarraville Creek, within the proposed Spring Creek Wilderness in southwest Utah, possesses wilderness and scenic qualities that rival those of its crowded southern neighbor, Zion National Park. The canyon’s enticing shaded narrows and cool water offer welcomed respite from the desert summer sun. Spring and Kanarraville Creeks comprise a critical segment of the proposed Zion-Black Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), a significant link in the 700-mile Grand Canyon-Yellowstone Wildlife Corridor.
The Confusion Hills, Nevada
A maze of multicolored, ash-fall hills characterizes the southwest corner of the Confusion Hills in central Nevada. These formations create the fanciful landscape from which the name of the area is derived. Open stands of pinyon and juniper trees flow-over these low hills and queue-up along the shallow canyons. Andesite Ridge dominates the north end of the area culminating in an 8000 foot peak. The southern end of Andesite Ridge bows down and meets a the dwarf-sage brush plain, which then merges with the rolling, juniper and pinyon covered hills in the center of the Confusion Hills. This wild and remote region is largely unknown and seldom visited.
Adobe Town, Wyoming
Adobe Town, in south-central Wyoming, is the largest and one of the most spectacular of the state’s BLM-managed wild areas, encompassing a maze of badlands, pillars, and natural arches. Rich in Eocene fossils such as woolly rhinoceros and giant ground sloth, it also has an unusually high concentration of ancient artifacts of human habitation, which stretches back 12,000 years. The area contains one of Wyoming’s largest Wilderness Study Areas in addition to surrounding, unprotected lands with wilderness characteristics.
Echo Canyon and Table Mountain, Colorado
This area is one of the wildest and inaccessible places of the Arkansas River Canyonlands in central Colorado, and also the largest, containing over 30,000 acres of unprotected wilderness lands. The scenic Table Mountain over Echo Canyon can be glimpsed from a drive along US Highway 50, or better yet, a boating trip on the Arkansas River. This area is also an important wildlife corridor and habitat for many species, including Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, black bear, elk, mule deer, pronghorn, mountain lion, as well as bird species such as the bald eagle, American peregrine falcon, and Mexican spotted owl.
Chain Buttes, Montana
Chain Buttes is one of about 16 unprotected wilderness areas identified in the Lewistown BLM field office, located south of the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Combined with the Refuge, this collection of wildlands attracts hunters from around that nation. The upcoming Lewistown Resource Management Plan will determine whether these wildlands are managed to protect their wilderness characteristics.
White Knobs, Idaho
The high and dry White Knobs, located between the Big Lost River Valley and the Copper Basin in east-central Idaho, offer exceptional opportunities for primitive recreation. The complex geology of the area inspires exploration where it is much more likely that a visitor would encounter a Golden Eagle, coyote or mule deer than another human being. This truly wild and magnificent area provides critical habitat for pygmy rabbits, sage grouse, mule deer and elk. Protection of the Dry Hollow area in the White Knobs would align with Idaho’s identity of a wildlife-rich state.
All of these wild places — and the many, many more managed by the BLM — are owned by each and every American, and they need your voice to ensure they stay that way for future generations. Even when it’s not National Public Lands Day, it is imperative to speak up: attend public meetings and volunteer events, submit written comments, and talk to your local land managers about which areas are important to protect from development and other threats. YOU are the public in public lands!
