The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) is a 501(c)(3) national non-profit, all volunteer membership conservation organization founded in 1987.  Its mission is to advocate and work for the retention of America's public lands in public hands, professionally and sustainably managed for responsible common use and enjoyment.  PLF is an advocate for professional multiple use management and protection of the public lands administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). It is a fast-paced passionate, advocate organization keeping policy makers and the general public aware of what is happening to the public lands.  Most PLF members are retired former BLM employees, and the Board of Directors serve as volunteers without compensation.

The following represents PLF's positions on major land management issues affecting the public lands.  Only the first few sentences of each Position Statement is provided here.  The full document can be read by clicking the representative links.  For additional information, contact Glen Collins or write to the Public Lands Foundation, P.O. Box 7226, Arlington, Virginia 22207.
 

Impacts of Solar and Wind Energy Development and Production on the National System of Public Lands

Development of large-scale renewable energy projects on the National System of Public Lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is relatively new.  There is broad support for pursuing alternative energy sources both to reduce carbon emissions and to reduce the reliance on foreign oil, but development must be done smart from the start.  This means early coordination and involvement among all interested parties, and seeking ways to minimize impacts. 

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Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) Use of the BLM Administered Lands

Off-highway vehicle (OHV) use is an established use of the BLM administered lands in the National System of Public Lands. As with any public land use, OHV use must be managed in a manner consistent with the capability of the land to sustain the use, with due consideration for the impact of OHV use on the land, the resources and other land users.

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Mining Law of 1872

The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) advocates the reform of the 1872 Mining Law to eliminate some of the exclusive ownership and use rights that are granted to mining claimants, to substitute some mechanism other than patenting to provide appropriate tenure for mine development, to obtain fair return of royalties to the public and to reclaim the land to the extent possible so that other uses may be made of the land, and to provide that future proposed mining operations be subject to the same environmental and land use planning considerations as are required for other uses of federal public lands.

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Science is important for supporting land management decisions and helping to outline their consequences.   The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) must state clearly the role of science in resource management decision-making and act accordingly. The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) believes BLM needs to reinforce its institutional commitment to the application of science to land management decisions.  Also, BLM would benefit from increased partnerships with public and private science providers in making informed resource management decisions. 

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The designation of the BLM Public Lands as the “National System of Public Lands” will substantially enhance public support for the BLM’s multiple use mission and will help keep these public lands in public ownership.   The Department of the Interior, by September 30, 2013, needs to complete the internal actions required by Secretarial Order 3280, which made this designation, to make the designation permanent.   Congress should be asked to give legislative authorization to the National System of Public Lands. 

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Amid widespread continuing support for the goals of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), there is a broad-based concern that the implementation of the act is generally inefficient and has fallen far short of achieving all of its intended purposes. The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) believes the ESA must be amended, and Federal Regulations for implementation of the Act modified. 

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Special Congressional legislation is directing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell large blocks of public land in Nevada, Idaho and Utah.  The legislation provides direction on such issues as what lands will be sold, for what uses, who will get the lands, and for what purposes.   The National System of Public Lands, administered by the BLM, is a national asset, and these Public Lands should be retained in public hands for use and enjoyment by the American people. These Public Lands should not be viewed as a source of funding for local projects, programs or purposes. 

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Recreational shooting is a legitimate component of multiple-use on the National System of Public Lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  For a variety of reasons, this use has not been a featured element in land use plans unless it was to prohibit recreational shooting.  The BLM Land Use Planning Process should identify potential shooting ranges or other areas of public land where concentrated recreational shooting activities are currently occurring and where such activities might be directed in the future.

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The disposal of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered public lands by the land exchange process, where the federal lands are traded for private or State lands of equal value, has provided many benefits for Federal public land management—improved public access, management efficiencies, protection of environmental values—and to States and private landowners as well. However, controversy and criticism over land exchanges and land exchange appraisals have plagued the BLM for decades, primarily related to exchanges involving high-value public lands around fast growing urban areas in the western states.

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The sage-grouse is the representative bird of the western United States sagebrush landscape. Significant declines in the populations of sage-grouse have occurred and they currently occupy only an estimated 56 percent of their historically occupied habitat.  More than half of the remaining sage grouse habitat is on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In response to a growing pressure for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a major collaborative effort began several years ago to protect and restore sage-grouse habitats and to rebuild grouse populations.

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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered public lands in the National System of Public Lands are a national asset, part of our heritage, which should remain in national public ownership so that current citizens and future generations can share in their beauty and bounty.

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The Public Lands Foundation (PLF), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the public recognize that there is a need to obtain or improve public access to many public land areas within the National System of Public Lands for public recreation and management and protection of resources, but inadequate funding, staffing and priority is given to solving access problems. PLF believes that a national database should be developed by the BLM to define the scope of the access issue. It should include data on acreage of public lands unavailable for public use; number of easements needed and estimated costs of easements.

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Smuggling of controlled substances and people into the United States from Mexico has caused significant impacts to lands and resources managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Tribal and State governments and private citizens along the southwest border of the United States.  The impacts imperil designated Wilderness Areas, National Conservation Areas, National Monuments and other public lands.  These impacts are so severe that immediate action by the Administration and Congress is required, including enactment and enforcement of a new immigration policy and allocation of sufficient resources to mitigate impacts resulting on lands within the National System of Public Lands administered by BLM.

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The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) supports the collection of fees for recreational uses of the National System of Public Lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Fees should be collected at recreational facilities provided by BLM, but not for casual use of the land. Fees so collected should be returned to the Bureau for use in maintenance of the recreation facilities.

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The general public in the urban areas of the rapidly growing West view the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered lands in the National System of Public Lands as their open space and outdoor enjoyment areas.  Over 57 million people now live within 25 miles of these Public Lands.  Managing outdoor recreation activities is a major mission of the BLM.  The recreating public is potentially a strong advocate for the National System of Public Lands.

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Water Rights on the National System of Public Lands

The Courts have determined that the States have the authority to allocate the rights to unappropriated waters on the National System of Public Lands. The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) advocates public ownership of the rights to waters on public lands to ensure that the water will remain on the land for livestock, wildlife and the other multiple uses that occur within the National System of Public Lands. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) should actively pursue a program of acquiring the rights to waters on public lands by filing applications with the appropriate state water agencies, and through negotiations with the holders of existing water rights on the National Public Lands.

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Sustainability and Management Policy for the National System of Public Lands

The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) asserts that the lands and resources managed by the Bureau of Land Management, now known as the National System of Public Lands, can best be—and must be—sustainably managed for the American people under the conservation mandate set forth in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).

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Biological Diversity and the National System of Public Lands

The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) strongly supports the conservation of biological diversity on public lands and waters within the National System of Public Lands and encourages BLM managers to maintain current levels while restoring, where feasible and appropriate, biological diversity on the lands and water they administer. It is neither practical nor possible to conserve or restore every element of biodiversity. Priority must be placed on assuring that opportunities for future decisions based on advanced science are not thoughtlessly foregone, while recognizing that legally and socially mandated uses of public lands should and will continue.

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Climate Change and the National System of Public Lands

The preponderance of evidence indicates that significant changes in climate are occurring.  However, the causes of these changes and what changes should be made in public land management are less clear and there are still many questions remaining to be answered. 

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Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Management on Public Land Administered by the Bureau of Land Management

Nearly 40 years after passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, there continues to be an expensive and contentious struggle to adequately meet the requirements of the Act to the satisfaction of interested parties.  The Act has served to assure the presence of wild horses and burros as part of the Western landscape with there being 37,000 animals on the land today, another 36,000 in holding facilities and 225,000 having been adopted.  Budgets have increased from less than $1 million to a request for $75.7 million for 2011, the majority of which is to operate facilities to care for animals for which there is no adoption demand.

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Federal land management agencies have a major responsibility in ensuring the recovery and reforestation of the forest after a catastrophic event such as a wildfire. The agencies should treat these activities as an emergency situation and aggressively pursue all restoration actions necessary to help promote the healing and restoration of the lands to desired conditions as prescribed in land use plans. Forest management activities should include prescriptions for (1) salvage that will capture economic values: (2) the planting of tree seedlings; and (3) a vegetative control and maintenance program to reduce the risk of recurring large scale fires and shrub encroachment.

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This document updates the Public Lands Foundation’s position paper that was written after the disastrous 1994 South Canyon Fire in Colorado, which killed 14 fire fighters. Since that time some dramatic changes have occurred.  Record fires in 2000, in the Northern Rockies, 2002 in Florida, Colorado and New Mexico, and 2003 in California have caused tremendous property damage, and loss of human life. These events caused Congress to recognize that wild land fire fighting programs were not part time jobs, and that funding was inadequate and not managed by the agencies in an accountable manner.

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Coalbed methane (CBM) is methane gas that can be extracted from coal beds. Large quantities of CBM are available from coal beds beneath public lands in the western states, with most of the current development in the Powder River Basin of eastern Wyoming and Montana. CBM production is a new and major onshore source of natural gas for the Nation, but with it comes a new set of major environmental problems.

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A biological disaster is in the making on the Public Lands of the West. It is a disaster that is also damaging private lands, and it poses potentially staggering losses to economic values as well as to wildlife resources and the productive biological diversity of the Public Lands. The impact is coming from a quietly insidious explosion of invasive non-native weeds that are spreading at alarming rates across public and private lands in the West, replacing native vegetation; destroying land productivity and wildlife habitat; endangering plant and animal species; and changing diverse ecosystems into permanently degraded monocultures of weeds that, in many cases, remain biological wastelands.

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