Publicly-managed lands are in peril. Here’s what can be done to fix BLM’s plans.
The beginning of the Biden presidency offers a crucial opportunity to take a fresh look at our public lands, and their management plans, through the new administration’s lens of addressing climate change, protecting 30 percent of the United States’ lands and waters by 2030, and advancing environmental justice. The following blueprint lays out the challenges and recommendations for specific Bureau of Land Management (BLM) resource management plans that have been underway during the past four years. BLM plans are a primary mechanism through which the federal government can accomplish these ambitious land conservation goals.
During the Trump Administration’s “Energy Dominance” agenda, the Department of the Interior and the BLM rolled back millions of acres of existing conservation designations, prioritized oil and gas extraction, shut out the voices of Indigenous communities, and put forward unbalanced management plans for important wild lands.
The Biden administration has an obligation and opportunity to right these wrongs while fulfilling commitments to address climate change, protect the nation’s lands and waters, and improve the health of communities by directing the BLM to review ongoing resource management plans across the West and in Alaska, ensuring these lands and waters will be properly stewarded to safeguard communities and combat climate change.
Here, we look state by state at which BLM-managed lands are in peril and what the new administration can do.
Alaska
Three resource management plans covering 48 million acres were advanced by the Trump Administration. The Trump Administration’s Revised Integrated Activity Plan for the National Petroleum Reserve — Alaska (NPRA) was completed (though not published in the Federal Register and so its status is not clear) and removed 7 million acres from protected status. BLM’s action opened significant western Arctic lands to oil and gas leasing and eliminated conservation protections for globally unique places such as the Teshekpuk Lake wetlands complex and the Colville River. Like the NPRA plan, the Bering Sea-Western Interior resource management plan covering more than 13 million acres, was mostly completed but its status is similarly uncertain. In its proposed decision in the Bering Sea-Western Interior plan, BLM ignored recommendations by dozens of tribal communities for protection of key watersheds as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and proposed the elimination of all 1.8 million acres of existing ACECs.
“The Nulato Tribe supports protections for our traditional lands and waterways. As Indigenous people, our cultural and traditional way of life is being threatened in multiple ways. Our salmon and our reindeer are threatened. If we lose all of our natural resources, our future generations will be fighting for survival.”
— Arnold Demoski, Nulato Tribe’s natural resources coordinator
Under the last administration, BLM also released a draft for the Central Yukon planning area that similarly ignored tribal interests. The Biden Administration can rectify these problems by re-opening these plan decisions and consulting with each region’s Indigenous communities to consider restoration of established protections and supplementing the plans to properly and fully incorporate Indigenous concerns.
Colorado
In Colorado’s Royal Gorge region along the Arkansas River, BLM has been working on the Eastern Colorado resource management plan since 2015. A fairly balanced draft plan was shared with the Resource Advisory Council in 2018, but a later draft issued to the public in 2019 deviated significantly. The preferred alternative is skewed to oil and gas development and is inconsistent with Colorado’s climate goals. BLM ignored public comments and cooperating agency input that overwhelmingly supported Lands with Wilderness Characteristics and recreation, with great concerns about fracking.
“When this Draft plan came out in 2018, less than 1% of BLM identified Lands with Wilderness Characteristics would have been protected and 98% of the planning area would have been open to oil and gas development, threatening local outdoor recreation, tourism and wildlife. Fortunately this planning effort is still ongoing and we look forward to the new administration bringing balance and local voices back to the process.”
— John Sztukowski, Conservation Director, Wild Connections
BLM should reassess their development of the proposed plan to ensure it aligns with climate change policies, the goals of protecting 30 percent of the U.S. by 2030, and environmental justice.
Montana
In Montana, BLM finalized two resource management plans during the Trump administration, one for the Lewistown planning area and one for the Missoula area; these plans remain in a similar legal limbo as the two aforementioned Alaska plans. The Lewistown plan prioritized oil and gas leasing above other uses — leaving 95% percent of the field office’s surface acres open to oil and gas leasing, removed nearly all ACECs, protected zero lands with wilderness characteristics, and didn’t protect a single eligible stream for inclusion in the Wild and Scenic River System.
“Lands within the Lewistown planning area are cherished by Montana hunters and contain some of our best big game habitat in the state. We hope the Biden Administration will restore needed conservation protections in the resource management plan to protect our fish, wildlife and sporting opportunities.”
— Alec Underwood, federal conservation campaigns director for the Montana Wildlife Federation
The Missoula plan also emphasized resource extraction and removal of land designations and management that provided conservation protections. The plan removed two of three ACECs, protected zero acres as Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, and will manage no eligible river segments for inclusion in the Wild & Scenic River System. We look to the Biden Interior Department to reset the plans with a supplemental analysis to advance conservation and significantly reduce the lands available to oil and gas leasing. Doing so will reduce the potential for damaging climate impacts from oil and gas development as well as help fulfill the goals of 30 by 30.
New Mexico
The BLM-managed lands surrounding the World Heritage Site at Chaco Canyon have been undergoing a resource management plan amendment process since 2014. Known as the Farmington RMPA, the draft plan was issued in March 2020, and despite the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, its disproportionate effect on New Mexico’s Indigenous population, and continued calls by the Navajo Nation, the All Pueblo Council of Governors, the New Mexico Congressional delegation, and others to suspend the plan, DoI continued to push the plan forward.
Despite already having leased 92% of the federal fluid minerals within the planning area, BLM’s preferred draft included no protections for lands with wilderness characteristics and made various management exceptions to key Areas of Critical Environmental Concern that are supposed to protect wildlife, cultural, and archaeological values, putting them at risk. BLM should administratively withdraw federal lands and minerals within the boundaries of the Chaco Cultural Heritage Withdrawal Area[1] from all forms of mining and mineral leasing for a period of at least twenty years. Once the planning process resumes, BLM must fully consider new forthcoming ethnographic research in the plan. In crafting the proposed final plan, BLM should align the plan with the Biden administration’s priorities of addressing climate change and environmental justice by implementing a protective buffer from oil and gas leasing around Chaco Canyon of at least 10 miles as requested by the All Pueblo Council of Governors, environmental organizations, and congressional leaders.
“The continuation of issued drilling permits in the midst of a pandemic in the Greater Chaco Region is a classic example of environmental injustice due to the lack of reliable internet access, Covid-19 related locksdowns and curfews, as well as other contributing factors that are unique to Indigenous communities. Impacts to frontlines communities should be considered in all public lands-related projects that will inherently affect the environment, people, and sacred spaces. Reevaluating the remaining 8% of public lands in the Chaco region is a basic step to ensure public health and safety are considered and addressed.”
— Kendra Pinto, Chaco Organizer, Diné C.A.R.E.
In another region of New Mexico, BLM has been working on the Carlsbad resource management plan. The draft plan that was issued in 2018 would leave 97% of the field office open to energy development, does not adequately analyze health impacts to nearby communities, and protect less than 1% of agency identified lands with wilderness characteristics. The Draft RMP demonstrates a deficiency in BLM’s assessment of the cumulative impacts of oil and gas drilling on human health and the environment. To address the serious issues and impacts which would arise if the proposed plan proceeds, BLM should fully consider the impacts of such intensive oil and development on public health, climate, water, air, wildlife, and the geology of the landscape, which characterizes nearby Carlsbad Caverns. BLM must revisit the draft resource management plan by conducting a supplemental analysis to more fully analyze the impacts to nearby communities as well as to the wildlife habitat and other natural values of the landscape.
Oregon
In Southeastern Oregon’s high desert, BLM has been working on a resource management plan amendment since 2012. In May 2019, BLM issued a draft plan that was wildly unbalanced. Despite the agency’s own findings of 1.24 million acres of lands with wilderness characteristics, the Draft preferred alternative included protections for zero acres of LWCs. This flew in the face of a balanced set of recommendations put forward by the Southeast Oregon Resource Advisory Council (SEORAC), a body comprised of commercial, conservation, and commodity interests. As BLM prepares the final EIS and proposed plan, they should let the SEORAC’s recommendations guide them on designation of LWCs, and critically examine how best to manage motorized use and livestock grazing to mitigate impacts to wildlife habitat and other public land resources. They must also take a careful look through the lens of addressing climate change and protecting 30 percent of the U.S. by 2030. By including sound management to address resource conflicts and protect agency-identified lands with wilderness characteristics it will help the U.S achieve its 30 by 30 goals.
Wyoming
The Rock Springs field office of the BLM has been working on a resource management plan revision for the last decade. While no draft plan has been made public, it is understood that BLM’s work on the plan over the last four years has followed the Trump administration’s “Energy Dominance” agenda; prioritizing oil and gas leasing above land conservation, wildlife habitat, and recreation. BLM should reassess the plan to ensure alignment with the incoming administration’s priorities. During this re-alignment of the plan before releasing the draft, the agency should not offer any lands within the field office for oil and gas leasing. This way, the plan’s updated management decisions will not be stymied by 10-year leases that determine how the land will be used. The draft plan and preferred alternative should include sound management to conserve lands with wilderness characteristics, priority wildlife habitats, pristine waterways, and ACECs.
[1] Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Withdrawal Area Map, available at https://www.tomudall.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2019-04-04%20Chaco%20Map.pdf.
