Valuing America's Public Lands 2024
As steward for approximately 245 million acres of America’s public lands, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages some of the nation’s most historic and scenic landscapes, as well as vast natural resources, for the benefit of all Americans. These public lands include rangelands, forests, mountains, arctic tundra, and deserts and encompass one-tenth of the nation’s surface and approximately one-third of its subsurface mineral resources.
This brochure provides a snapshot of how the diverse activities the BLM authorized on public lands during fiscal year (FY) 2023 generated $252.1 billion in total economic output. This economic activity supported 949,000 total jobs and contributed substantial revenue to the U.S. Treasury and state governments. This includes contributions to the economy from the BLM’s expenditures while carrying out its mission, as well as payments the agency transfers to states and counties.
Much of the data on this web page is based on the BLM's Valuing America's Public Lands 2024 publication (PDF).
The figures and tables below report the economic contributions stemming from specific resource uses supported by BLM-managed lands and by BLM’s labor and non-labor expenditures.
Using the interactive charts
The charts are dynamic and interactive. Hover your mouse or tap with your finger to see the value of a bar or a pie wedge. You can toggle sectors on the pie chart by clicking them. This is helpful to enhance the view of smaller values that appear with larger values of data. Full tables of the data in the dynamic charts are provided below.
$252.1 Billion in Total Economic Output
* National totals may differ from the sum of individual state numbers because they take into account activity across state borders and average industry productivity across states.
** Under certain laws, the BLM makes payments to states and counties that are used to help fund schools, road improvements, infrastructure, and public services within their jurisdictions.
Total Economic Output By State Office
Recreation$48.1M
Renewables
Nonenergy Minerals$1.4M
Oil and Gas$1,393.3M
Grazing
Coal
Timber$1M
BLM Expenditures$193.4M
Payments$65.2M
Total Jobs Supported by State and Sector
* National totals may differ from the sum of individual state numbers because they take into account activity across state borders and average industry productivity across states.
** Under certain laws, the BLM makes payments to states and counties that are used to help fund schools, road improvements, infrastructure, and public services within their jurisdictions.
Total Jobs By State Office
Recreation366 jobs
Renewables
Nonenergy Minerals7 jobs
Oil and Gas2,259 jobs
Grazing
Coal
Timber5 jobs
BLM Expenditures1,302 jobs
Payments457 jobs
Definitions for these contributions
- Jobs: an annual average of the number of full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees. Jobs do not equal full-time equivalents.
- Output: the market value of production of a good or service. Output can also be expressed in terms of total sales value, or in terms of the cost to produce a good or service.
- Direct contributions: reflect the economic activity directly attributable to the resource use in question, such as the money spent by visitors, or mining jobs supported by the production of federal minerals.
- Total contributions: include direct economic activity plus its ‘ripple effect’ throughout the economy. These ripples include economic activity in sectors that support activity in directly affected sectors, and economic activity generated by employees spending their labor income.
Each resource use supports direct and total contributions. The figures report TOTAL JOBS and TOTAL OUTPUT, while the tables below report both direct and total contributions.
Data Tables
- Total Economic Output
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Recreation Renewables Nonenergy Minerals Oil and Gas Grazing Coal Timber BLM Expenditures Payments Grand Total Alaska $48.1M $0M $1.4M $1,393.3M $0M $0M $1M $193.4M $65.2M $1,702.5M Arizona $368.6M $168.6M $76.7M $0M $73.4M $0M $0M $217.1M $26.8M $931.4M California $1,603M $4,031.7M $634.6M $1,485.3M $52.6M $0M $4.3M $364M $112.9M $8,288.8M Colorado $1,458.5M $0M $152.2M $5,690.8M $76.2M $583.9M $24.2M $511.5M $269.4M $8,767M Eastern States $31.6M $0M $376.7M $901M $0M $42.7M $0M $343.7M $45.9M $1,741.9M Idaho $417.9M $0M $393.9M $0.05M $263.7M $0M $20.7M $398.7M $30.5M $1,525.8M Montana - Dakotas $321.2M $0M $4.8M $7,251.4M $223.6M $731.3M $17.9M $182.6M $235.4M $8,968.5M Nevada $401.6M $1,683.8M $6,209.3M $30.9M $222.4M $0M $0.9M $309.8M $60.5M $8,919.6M New Mexico $351.1M $26.6M $557.6M $70,058.7M $240.2M $0M $0.5M $309.3M $3,767.1M $75,311.3M Oregon - Washington $698.9M $0.2M $28.4M $0M $163.3M $0M $1,078M $503.6M $64.7M $2,537.4M Utah $1,965.1M $40.6M $81.7M $5,366.7M $141M $443M $3.2M $294.6M $237.3M $8,573.7M Wyoming $211.7M $115.8M $1,774.2M $17,349.1M $238.9M $4,099M $6.7M $164.2M $970.8M $24,930.8M - Total Jobs
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Recreation Renewables Nonenergy Minerals Oil and Gas Grazing Coal Timber BLM Expenditures Payments Grand Total Alaska 366 0 7 2,259 0 0 5 1,302 457 4,395 Arizona 3,151 374 326 0 1,628 0 0 1,320 230 7,028 California 10,711 9,313 2,393 4,381 481 0 22 2,135 681 30,117 Colorado 11,261 0 555 19,758 932 1,739 143 2,898 2,151 39,436 Eastern States 232 0 1,048 3,183 0 137 0 1,765 314 6,680 Idaho 4,016 0 1,839 0 2,740 0 126 2,767 319 11,808 Montana - Dakotas 2,783 0 16 18,973 2,188 2,199 79 1,435 2,211 29,884 Nevada 3,189 3,964 17,980 129 1,861 0 4 2,105 460 29,692 New Mexico 3,202 54 2,031 156,723 5,092 0 3 1,949 34,625 203,677 Oregon - Washington 6,102 0 150 0 2,404 0 4,952 3,467 469 17,544 Utah 16,521 96 383 19,454 2,484 1,316 21 2,045 1,978 44,298 Wyoming 1,867 169 5,134 44,642 2,787 8,308 43 1,251 8,825 73,025 - Direct Economic Output
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Recreation Renewables Nonenergy Minerals Oil and Gas Grazing Coal Timber BLM Expenditures Payments Grand Total Alaska $30.4M $0M $0.8M $1,120.4M $0M $0M $0.6M $116.5M $40.9M $1,309.8M Arizona $195.3M $117M $42.8M $0M $22M $0M $2.2M $106.3M $14.6M $498.2M California $883.2M $2,491M $329.5M $843.2M $19M $0M $2.2M $189.9M $62.9M $4,821.1M Colorado $760.5M $0M $80.8M $2,725M $28.1M $365.6M $12.8M $255.9M $148.8M $4,377.7M Eastern States $14M $0M $202.3M $412.5M $0M $21.1M $0M $147M $21.2M $818.4M Idaho $244.4M $0M $220.4M $0.03M $109.9M $0M $11.8M $222M $18.5M $827.3M Montana - Dakotas $192.1M $0M $2.9M $5,042.4M $91.2M $477.6M $10.5M $102.7M $145.6M $6,065.5M Nevada $242.4M $1,154.4M $4,153.2M $16.7M $95.8M $0M $0.6M $177.3M $36.1M $5,876.6M New Mexico $219.3M $16.9M $354.4M $53,350.6M $94.2M $0M $0.3M $174.7M $2,364.9M $56,575.6M Oregon - Washington $382M $0.1M $15.1M $0M $60.5M $0M $580.1M $271.4M $35M $1,344.4M Utah $1,072.3M $22.8M $44.5M $2,987.6M $54.1M $281.1M $1.7M $154.3M $135.5M $4,745.2M Wyoming $143.4M $92.3M $1,254.4M $13,096.7M $111.6M $3,164.6M $4.3M $110.2M $680.1M $18,657.9M - Direct Jobs
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Recreation Renewables Nonenergy Minerals Oil and Gas Grazing Coal Timber BLM Expenditures Payments Grand Total Alaska 277 0 5 909 0 0 2 869 323 2,384 Arizona 2,142 117 146 0 1,195 0 0 698 159 4,457 California 7,256 2,823 1,126 1,593 252 0 11 1,283 435 14,777 Colorado 7,522 0 225 4,829 466 742 72 1,533 1,479 16,869 Eastern States 143 0 269 926 0 44 0 767 184 2,333 Idaho 2,906 0 892 0 1,572 0 55 1,681 242 7,348 Montana - Dakotas 1,954 0 7 8,475 902 966 36 915 1,669 14,925 Nevada 2,315 1,551 8,139 54 1,050 0 2 1,354 320 14,787 New Mexico 2,408 17 1,017 71,471 2,997 0 2 1,148 25,755 104,815 Oregon - Washington 4,267 0 80 0 1,442 0 2,037 2,144 295 10,265 Utah 11,386 27 199 6,938 1,636 559 11 1,238 1,388 23,382 Wyoming 1,456 50 2,602 23,631 1,248 4,197 22 916 7,030 14,153