Bureau of Land Management Conservation Lands and BLM’s Future

This essay addresses the past and future of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Although the least known of the four principal US federal land management agencies, it looks after the largest amount of land, about 250 million acres. Almost all are in the West and in Alaska, as shown on the following map. A growing proportion are stewarded primarily to preserve and allow the general public to enjoy their scenery, wildlife, and historic and other cultural values (hence the “Conservation Lands” of the title). Part One provides a capsule history of how this all came about, focusing first on the events leading up to BLM’s establishment in 1946, and then on the events leading up to the present. In Part Two, I assess current trends and what they suggest about the future of these BLM National Conservation Lands.