Decision Support, Planning, & NEPA

To ensure the best balance of uses and resource protections for America’s public lands, the BLM undertakes extensive land use planning through a collaborative approach with local, state and tribal governments, the public, and stakeholder groups. The result is a set of land use plans – called Resource Management Plans – that provide the framework to guide decisions for every action and approved use on the National System of Public Lands. The BLM currently manages over 245 million acres of surface land and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate.

Ensuring these plans are up-to-date is critical because so many Americans look to the public lands for a wide variety of resources, including energy, rights-of-way that support communications and energy delivery, a variety of recreational uses, and crucial habitat for species associated with the Western landscape, such as the sage-grouse and pronghorn antelope.