How the BLM relies on the public, computer drawings, and local knowledge to open new lands to recreation

NARRATOR (Chris Holmes, BLM Communications): The BLM needs your help.

Specifically, your knowledge of local areas that you’d like to go play and recreate on, but for some reason, you either can’t get access to, or are kept out for other reasons, like legal ownership.

And, we’ll need some of your drawing talent, as well. Don’t worry, we’re not looking for a masterpiece. This is more like the draw program on your personal computer or pad.

I’m Chris Holmes for the BLM.

We’re talking about the mandate from Congress as part of the John Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act. When Congress passed the law and the president signed it in 2019, it told several federal agencies, including the BLM, to actively solicit public input every two years on where we should open new public lands for recreation.

And did you respond. In the first year, we got 6-thousand suggestions on our website. Honestly, it was such a huge response it took us a long time to process everything. It’s a ten-year project – and we’re not even halfway through.

In 2022, we got another 600 nominations, and as we speak, we’re in the 2024 cycle, asking for nominations through the end of August.

So how does this work? And what happens to all those suggestions you give us? Let’s bring in the expert on the Dingell Act. Welcome Ashton Johnston.

It sounds complicated, making these nominations, but you’ve actually simplified the process.

ASHTON JOHNSTON (BLM Analyst and Program Manager): Yeah. So on our BLM website, we have a web map tool that the public or organizations can open up and go into the map, digitally draw a polygon around the lands that they want to nominate as open to recreation.

And we also have a video that walks you through how to do it, as well as an instructional document that provides more information on all of the steps.

And lastly, we have an email if you have any questions.

HOLMES: What goes into a successful nomination? What does it require?

ASHTON JOHNSTON: So first off, we're looking for 640 contiguous acres of public land that's managed by the BLM, and that's going to be yellow on the map.

Then we're looking for areas where recreation access is either non-existent, so you cannot get there legally, or it's significantly restricted. Maybe the access point has really rough terrain, and there's an area you want to get into that you can't easily get to as it currently is.

The other things that we're looking for are the type of recreation that you want to do out there, so hunting, camping, river access, et cetera, and what the specific issue is.

So is it no legal access, a road or trail is not open to the public, or a large area with not enough access points, as a few examples.

And the more information you provide us, the better we're going to be able to evaluate it.

HOLMES: I've looked at the map, and there's a lot of land out there that people just don't have access to.

JOHNSTON: There is, yeah. It's not a problem, or it is a problem, and we certainly want to improve that access and make sure the public can get to the public lands that they want to recreate on.

HOLMES: So you get these nominations, and you get these polygons that are drawn on this computer map, but where do they go after that? What happens then?

JOHNSTON: So once the public nomination period is over, BLM will review all of the nominations that were submitted, and we will look at a few different criteria. Some is going to be the Dingell Act requirements, like that 640 acres.

We're also going to look at the existing land use plans that BLM has put together for that public land, and then the likelihood of resolving the access issues.

From there, once we've evaluated them, the nominations will either be added to our priority access list that we send to Congress, or BLM will continue to evaluate them or actually remove them from consideration if there was some sort of error, like not enough information, duplicate submissions, or they didn't meet the Dingell Act's requirement.

HOLMES: Very interesting. So you actually send this list to Congress, and then it's up to them to pick and choose whether to fund, for instance, buying the land or building roads and trails, that type of thing, right?

JOHNSTON: Yeah, exactly.

So we send the list to Congress and provide them notification of where the lands are that don't have access, and then there's another program called the Land and Water Conservation Fund that we use to fund acquisitions, and that's a voluntary acquisition, so like a purchase from a private landowner who's a willing seller.

And we can either purchase an easement for a road or a trail, or we can purchase property outright that's adjacent that might provide access to the restricted area.

And those are all funded through that Land and Water Conservation Fund that I mentioned, and Congress specifically approves LWCF acquisitions.

HOLMES: So there's a number of ways to handle this problem. Here's your chance to get new nominations. Where does the public, where should they go to submit these nominations?

JOHNSTON: On the BLM website. We can put the link in the show notes, and you'll open up that web nomination portal.

Follow the how-to video if you have any questions.

And we just want to thank you all for taking the time to submit the 600 nominations in 2022, and we look forward to seeing all of your nominations that are coming up this year.

HOLMES: Ashton Johnston, thank you so much.

Very informative, and it actually sounds very interesting and fun for people to make these considerations, so we hope that you get a lot of nominations to evaluate in 2024.

JOHNSTON: Yeah, we do as well. Thank you, Chris.

HOLMES: The Dingell Act directs Federal agencies to continue this process through 2030, so you’ll hear a lot more about it in the future, especially here at the BLM.

OK, let’s put you to work!

Visit the website, take a look around, make your suggestions, and we’ll see you…On the Ground.