The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one-eighth of the United States's total landmass.
The Bureau was created by Congress during the presidency of Harry S Truman in 1946 by combining two existing agencies: the United States General Land Office and the Grazing Service. The agency manages the federal government's nearly of subsurface mineral estate located beneath federal, state and private lands severed from their surface rights by the Homestead Act of 1862.
The mission of the BLM is "to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations." Originally BLM holdings were described as "land nobody wanted" because homesteaders had passed them by. The agency manages 263 wilderness areas, 31 national monuments and some 710 other protected areas as part of the National Conservation Lands (formerly known as the National Landscape Conservation System), totaling about . In addition the National Conservation Lands include nearly 2,700 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers, and nearly 6,000 miles of National Scenic and Historic Trails. There are more than 63,000 oil and gas wells on BLM public lands. Total energy leases generated approximately $5.4 billion in 2013, an amount divided among the Treasury, the states, and Native American groups.
History
Background
thumb|Map showing land owned by different federal government agencies. The yellow represents the Bureau of Land Management's holdings.
thumb|Horses crossing a plain near the Simpson Park Wilderness Study Area in central [[Nevada, managed by the Battle Mountain BLM Field Office]]
thumb|Snow-covered cliffs of Snake River Canyon, [[Idaho, managed by the Boise District of the BLM]]
The BLM's roots go back to the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These laws provided for the survey and settlement of the lands that the original Thirteen Colonies ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution. After the war, the Treaty of Paris of 1783, signed by the United States, the UK, France, and Spain, ceded territory to the United States. In the 1780s, other states relinquished their own claims to land in modern-day Ohio. and land was sold as a source of income for the government. In 1812, Congress established the United States General Land Office as part of the Department of the Treasury to oversee the disposition of these federal lands. By the early 1800s, promised bounty land claims were finally fulfilled. Several different types of patents existed. These include cash entry, credit, homestead, Indian, military warrants, mineral certificates, private land claims, railroads, state selections, swamps, town sites, and town lots. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such as coal, oil, gas, and sodium to take place on public lands. The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 established the United States Grazing Service to manage the public rangelands by establishment of advisory boards that set grazing fees. The Oregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Management Act of 1937, commonly referred as the O&C Act, required sustained yield management of the timberlands in western Oregon.
Establishment and early history
In 1946, the Grazing Service was merged with the United States General Land Office to form the Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior. In the end, the Bureau of Land Management became less focused on land disposal and more focused on the long term management and preservation of the land. As a matter of course, the BLM's emphasis fell on activities in the western states as most of the mining, land sales, and federally owned areas are located west of the Mississippi.
BLM personnel on the ground have typically been oriented toward local interests, while bureau management in Washington are led by presidential guidance. By means of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, Congress created a more unified bureau mission and recognized the value of the remaining public lands by declaring that these lands would remain in public ownership.
Since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, Republicans have often given priority to local control and to grazing, mining and petroleum production, while Democrats have more often emphasized environmental concerns even when granting mining and drilling leases. In September 1996, then President Bill Clinton used his authority under the Antiquities Act to establish the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, the first of now 20 national monuments established on BLM lands and managed by the agency.
First Trump administration
Under the Trump administration, the BLM offered millions of acres of available federal lands for 10-year leases for commercial development, potentially in oil and gas and mining, with the stated goal of "promoting American energy security". According to a June 18, 2018 article in The Atlantic, under the tenure of then-United States Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke "practically gave away hundreds of thousands of acres of open land across the West, leasing it to energy companies for pennies on the dollar." The Salt Lake Tribune reported that in March 2019, the price per acre for leases near the Golden Spike National Historical Park, in Utah were "$1.50 an acre for the next two years". By September 11, 2018, the Department of Interior was offering 2.9 million acres to be leased to commercial operations including drilling for oil and gas and mining in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and other states where public land is not protected by a national park or monument designation. The BLM's May 30, 2019 statement proposed an additional 183,668 acres on "lands managed by the Canyon Country, Color Country, Green River, and West Desert districts" that would be listed for the quarterly oil and gas lease sale on September 10, 2019.
Also in August 2020, the BLM headquarters was relocated to Grand Junction, Colorado, by an order signed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. The relocation was praised by Republican Western politicians but criticized by Democrats as a move to weaken the agency through the loss of experienced staffers, who opted to stay in Washington, D.C. Some ranchers were concerned about the isolation of Grand Junction compared to other Western cities, having limited flights and road access. After the announcement, 87% of D.C.-based employees left, prompting former lead career BLM official Steve Ellis to state "the bureau lost a tremendous amount of expertise...[of] very seasoned people."
Biden administration
On September 17, 2021, Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the headquarters would be moved back to Washington, D.C.
Under the Biden administration, the BLM was working on a pilot project called "outcomes-based grazing", to see if cattle grazing can help achieve conservation, agency director Tracy Stone-Manning said in an interview published in April 2022.
In June 2022, the BLM finalized two acquisitions in Colorado and Wyoming, acquiring over 40,000 acres of previously inaccessible land. The acquisition in Wyoming for 35,670 acres is the agency's largest ever purchase in the state.
In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act became effective.
In 2024 the Department of the Interior begun to advance a new rule according to which the Bureau of Land Management can distribute restoration leases and mitigation leases exactly in the same way as it distributes new leases for oil and gas drilling. The designed land will be used for nature conservation including use of indigenous knowledge. This policy was repealed in September 2025 under the second Trump administration.
Second Trump administration
In February 2025, three weeks after the beginning of his second presidency, president Trump
nominated Kathleen Sgamma, a petroleum industry lobbyist who contributed to Project 2025, to lead the BLM. Sgamma had previously served as president of the Western Energy Alliance, an association of independent oil and natural gas companies with interests on public lands.
Sgamma withdrew her nomination on April 10, just as her confirmation hearing was about to begin. In November 2025, Trump nominated Steve Pearce to be the BLM Director. He was confirmed by the Senate on May 18, 2026, and sworn in on May 20, 2026.
Programs
thumb|Most of the public lands held by the Bureau of Land Management are located in the western states.
- Grazing. The BLM manages livestock grazing on nearly million acres under the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. The agency has granted more than 18,000 permits and leases to ranchers who graze their livestock, mostly cattle and sheep, at least part of the year on BLM public lands. The grazing fee for 2014 was set at $1.35 per AUM, the same level as for 2013.
:In 2010 BLM had on record a total of 290,000 mining claims under the General Mining Law of 1872. The BLM issues permits for oil and gas, coal, strategic minerals, and renewable energy resources such as wind, geothermal and solar to be developed on public lands. The total mining claims on lands owned by the BLM by 2019 decreased while the number of rejected claims increased. Among the over 3.8 million mining claims overseen by BLM just over 10% of claims were still active, of which Nevada had the most at 203,705 and California had 49,259.
- Coal leases. In 2013, BLM held the coal mineral estate to more than where the owner of the surface is the federal government, a state or local government, or a private entity. As of 2013, the BLM had competitively granted 309 leases for coal mining to , an increase of or nearly 3% increase in land subject to coal production over ten years' time. The agency also manages of National Scenic, National Historic and National Recreation Trails, as well as thousands of miles of multiple use trails used by motorcyclists, hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers. Over 99% of BLM-managed lands are open to hunting, recreational shooting opportunities, and fishing.
- Conservation. The National Landscape Conservation System preserves a variety of lands protected from development.
- California Desert Conservation Area. The California Desert Conservation Area covers of land in southern California designated by Congress in 1976 by means of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. BLM is charged with administering about of this fragile area with its potential for multiple uses in mind. are productive forests and woodlands on public domain lands and are on O&C lands in western Oregon. The agency fought 2,573 fires on BLM-managed lands in fiscal year 2013.
- Leasing and Land Management of Split Estates. A split estate is similar to the broad form deeds used, starting in the early 1900s. It is a separation of mineral rights and surface rights on a property. The BLM manages split estates, but only in cases when the "surface rights are privately owned and the rights to the minerals are held by the federal government."
- Cadastral surveys. The BLM is the official record keeper for over 200 years' worth of cadastral survey records and plats as part of the Public Land Survey System. In addition, the Bureau still completes numerous new surveys each year, mostly in Alaska, and conducts resurveys to restore obliterated or lost original surveys. As of April 2014, the inventory contained nearly 46,000 sites and 85,000 other features.
- Energy corridors. Approximately of energy corridors for pipelines and transmission lines were or are located on BLM-managed lands. Though the reserve had been set to be moved to private hands, it remains subject to oversight of the BLM under the provisions of the unanimously-passed Responsible Helium Administration and Stewardship Act of 2013.
- Revenue and fees. The BLM produces (as of 2013) significant revenue for the United States budget. In 2009, public lands were expected to generate an estimated $6.2 billion in revenues, mostly from energy development. The National Conservation Lands constitute just about 12% of the lands managed by the BLM. Congress passed Title II of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-11) to make the system a permanent part of the public lands protection system in the United States. By designating these areas for conservation, the law directed the BLM to ensure these places are protected for future generations, similar to national parks and wildlife refuges.
Law enforcement and security
thumb|The badge of BLM law enforcement rangers
The BLM, through its Office of Law Enforcement and Security, functions as a federal law enforcement agency of the United States Government. BLM law enforcement rangers and special agents receive their training through Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC). Full-time staffing for these positions approaches 300.
thumb|Wildfire being monitored by Bureau of Land Management law enforcement with aerial firefighting support.
thumb|Bureau of Land Management law enforcement ranger assigned to the Wapiti Fire near Stanley, ID
Uniformed rangers enforce laws and regulations governing BLM lands and resources. As part of that mission, these BLM rangers carry firearms and defensive equipment, make arrests, execute search warrants, complete reports and testify in court. Special agents are normally plain clothes officers who carry concealed firearms and other defensive equipment, make arrests, carry out complex criminal investigations, present cases for prosecution to local United States Attorneys and prepare investigative reports. The killing of healthy or unhealthy horses has almost never occurred. Pursuant to the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978, the BLM has established 179 "herd management areas" (HMAs) covering acres where feral horses can be found on federal lands.
In 1973, BLM began a pilot project on the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range known as the Adopt-A-Horse initiative. The program took advantage of provisions in the WFRHBA to allow private "qualified" individuals to "adopt" as many horses as they wanted if they could show that they could provide adequate care for the animals. At the time, title to the horses remained permanently with the federal government.
thumb|[[Feral burros in Red Rock Canyon|left]]
Despite the early successes of the adoption program, the BLM has struggled to maintain acceptable herd levels, as without natural predators, herd sizes can double every four years.
Renewable energy
thumb|Aerial photograph of [[Ivanpah Solar Power Facility located on BLM-managed land in the Mojave Desert]]
In 2009, BLM opened Renewable Energy Coordination Offices in order to approve and oversee wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal projects on BLM-managed lands. The offices were located in the four states where energy companies had shown the greatest interest in renewable energy development: Arizona, California, Nevada, and Wyoming. As of 2014, 70 solar energy projects covering had been proposed on public lands managed by BLM primarily located in Arizona, California, and Nevada. To date, it has approved 29 projects that have the potential to generate 8,786 megawatts of renewable energy or enough energy to power roughly 2.6 million homes. It has authorized 39 wind energy development projects with a total approved capacity of 5,557 megawatts or enough to supply the power needs of over 1.5 million homes. In addition, BLM has authorized over 100 wind energy testing sites.
- Geothermal energy. BLM manages 59 geothermal leases in producing status, with a total capacity of 1,500 megawatts. This amounts to over 40% of the geothermal energy capacity in the United States. The biomass is composed of "smaller diameter materials" and other debris that result from timber production and forest management.
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See also
- Range Improvement Funds
- Rangeland management
- Sagebrush Rebellion
Notes
References
Further reading
- Skillen, James R. The Nation's Largest Landlord: The Bureau of Land Management in the American West (University Press of Kansas, 2009) 320 pp. excerpt and text search
- United States. Congress. Senate. BLM Permit Processing: Hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, Second Session . . . July 29, 2014. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2014.
External links
- Bureau of Land Management in the Federal Register
- Opportunity & Challenge: The Story of BLM – Official History