Designation of Lands Inventoried as Having Wilderness Characteristics as Wilderness Study Areas through the Land Use Planning Process Consistent with Section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act

This Information Bulletin (IB) disseminates the updates to BLM Manuals 6320 (rel. 6-139) – Considering Lands with Wilderness Characteristics in the BLM Land Use Planning Process and 6330 (rel. 6-134) – Management of Wilderness Study Areas. This IB revives the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) policy regarding the use of the term Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) to designate lands the BLM inventories it determines to have wilderness characteristics, and decides, through the land use planning process under Section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), to manage for protection of those characteristics.  These WSA designations (also referred to as “Section 202 WSAs”) provide for managing such wilderness characteristics to a non-impairment standard to ensure they maintain suitability for potential wilderness designation.  The BLM’s management of Section 202 WSA designations would continue unless the BLM, in its discretion, changes its WSA designation through a future land use planning process or Congress designates such lands as wilderness or takes other actions regarding specific lands.  The BLM’s use of WSA designations is consistent with and complements existing options for managing wilderness characteristics, including through management prescriptions to protect or minimize impacts to lands with wilderness characteristics (LWC) or as incorporated into other management approaches, including areas designated for special management, such as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs).   

This IB directs the BLM to consider management of lands that the BLM has identified as having wilderness characteristics as WSAs when preparing land use plan revisions or amendments, where appropriate, among the alternatives for managing lands with wilderness characteristics. In determining whether and how to manage areas with wilderness characteristics as WSAs through BLM’s management authority under Section 202 of FLPMA, the BLM should implement the applicable policies – Manuals 6310 (rel. 6-138) Conducting Wilderness Characteristics Inventory on BLM Lands, 6320 (rel. 6-143), and 6330 (rel. 6-144).  The updates to Manuals 6320 and 6330 are as follows: 

1. Manual 6320 – Section 1.6.A. is revised to recognize an additional management option to prioritize protection of wilderness characteristics by designating an area inventoried and determined to possess wilderness characteristics as a Section 202 WSA through the land use planning process outlined in Section 202 of FLPMA.  The BLM would manage those lands designated as Section 202 WSAs consistent with Manual 6330.  Manual 6320 will continue to provide for three management options for lands possessing wilderness characteristics, consistent with the BLM’s authority under Section 202 of FLPMA, including management to: prioritize protection of wilderness characteristics while allowing for other compatible multiple uses; minimize impacts to wilderness characteristics via management restrictions while emphasizing other multiple uses; and allowing for other multiple uses while not protecting wilderness characteristics.  .  

2. Manual 6330 – Section 1.1, Purpose, is revised to clarify that the BLM will continue to manage both Section 202 WSAs designated prior to 2003 and future areas designated as Section 202 WSAs through the land use planning process reflected in Section 202 of FLPMA consistent with the non-impairment standard set forth in this manual.  The revisions retain the general distinctions between management of Section 202 WSAs and Section 603 WSAs, as well as the acknowledgement that management of Section 202 WSAs not reported to Congress by 1992 will continue until the BLM changes such designation through a land use planning process, i.e., consistent with Section 202 of FLPMA, which differs from those WSAs identified through the wilderness review required by Section 603 of FLPMA.  

Background:  The BLM has determined that consideration of the management of public lands should include the broadest spectrum of options relating to conservation consistent with applicable law, including the land use planning requirements of FLPMA.  One form of management qualifying for conservation is the protection of areas meeting the definition of wilderness.  Areas currently designated as WSAs or congressionally designated Wilderness would qualify.  Other areas with wilderness resources may also qualify for protective management designations or allocations through the land use planning process.  Current BLM policies allow for the consideration of management decisions aimed at protecting areas identified as possessing wilderness characteristics, referred to as lands with wilderness characteristics or LWCs, but prohibit the BLM from designating new WSAs.  Widely recognized and understood by the public as a classification for managing public lands with a well-defined management standard – i.e., the non-impairment standard – the BLM identified use of WSAs through the land use planning process as another legally viable conservation option, which had been explicitly available from at least 1987 through 2003.  The recognition of the BLM’s authority and discretion to once again utilize WSA designations through the land use planning process requires a change to existing policy. 

Through the passage of FLPMA in 1976, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to review all public lands with roadless areas of greater than 5,000 acres and, under the inventory process required by Section 201 of FLPMA, identify those areas that have wilderness characteristics as described in the Wilderness Act of 1964.  The Secretary delegated this authority to the BLM.  Section 603 of FLPMA also required the Secretary to recommend areas for permanent preservation as wilderness to the President by 1991, who in turn had two years to provide such wilderness designation recommendations to Congress.  Further, Section 603(c) of FLPMA required the BLM to manage all areas identified as meeting the wilderness criteria during the review period required under Section 603 “in a manner so as not to impair the suitability of such areas for preservation as wilderness,” which is referred to as the “non-impairment” mandate.   

As it completed inventories of the public lands under Section 603 of FLPMA, the BLM referred to those areas with wilderness characteristics as “Wilderness Study Areas” or “WSAs.”  The review process directed by Section 603 of FLPMA concluded in 1991.  Until 2003, the BLM also termed areas that it designated for the protection of wilderness characteristics under Section 202 of FLPMA as WSAs, with the difference being that “Section 202 WSAs” could be modified in a future planning process.  During the review period, the BLM issued guidance concerning the wilderness review process and its approach to management of areas inventoried as having wilderness values, e.g., Wilderness Inventory Handbook: Policy, Direction, Procedures, and Guidance for Conducting Wilderness Inventory on the Public Lands (Sept. 27, 1978); Interim Management Policy and Guidelines for Lands under Wilderness Review, 44 Fed. Reg. 72,014 (Dec. 12, 1979) (“1979 IMP”).  The 1979 IMP recognized the BLM’s discretion under Sections 202 and 302 of FLPMA to review and manage areas smaller than 5,000 acres for wilderness management even though the mandate under Section 603(c) of FLPMA does not apply.  1979 IMP at 72,015 n.1.   

The 1987 revisions to the IMP more clearly signaled the BLM’s authority under Section 202 of FLPMA by, among other things, directing the BLM to apply a “modified form of interim management” to areas smaller than 5,000 acres under wilderness review consistent with the authority under Sections 202 and 302 of FLPMA, and adding “Section 202 Wilderness Study Area” to the glossary.  BLM, Manual H-8550-1, Interim Management Policy and Guidelines for Lands under Wilderness Review at 2 (Nov. 10, 1987) (“1987 IMP”).  The 1995 version of the IMP continued to acknowledge Section 202 WSAs.  BLM, Manual 8550, Interim Management Policy and Guidelines for Lands under Wilderness Review at .02.A, Glossary, Page 3 (July 5, 1995) (“1995 IMP”).  Finally, in 2001, the BLM offered new guidance on conducting wilderness inventories under Section 201 of FLPMA and potentially designating as WSAs under Section 202 of FLPMA those areas meeting the definition of wilderness.  BLM, H-6310-1, Wilderness Inventory and Study Procedures at .01, 0.2 (Jan. 10, 2001) (“2001 Inventory Handbook”).         

In 2003, the BLM rescinded these policies relating to Section 202 WSAs based on a settlement agreement to resolve a lawsuit brought by the State of Utah and others challenging the BLM’s wilderness re-inventory process in Utah.  Originally approved as a consent decree by the district court, the settlement agreement (referred to as “the Norton Settlement”) was vacated in 2005 and later that year executed as an out-of-court settlement.1  The BLM issued IM 2003-195, IM 2003-274 and IM 2003-275, Change 1 to conform with the terms of the Norton Settlement’s stipulations, which rescinded earlier policies, including the 2001 Inventory Handbook.  These IMs prohibited the BLM’s use of WSAs to designate and manage wilderness resources through Section 202 of FLPMA, while also acknowledging the BLM’s continuing authority to inventory public lands for wilderness characteristics and discretion on how to manage such resources through the land use planning process.   

Subsequent administrations have made the policy decision to continue to follow the stipulations in the Norton Settlement, including by continuing the prohibition of WSA designations through the land use planning process.  Manuals 6310, Conducting Wilderness Characteristics Inventory on BLM Lands and 6320, Considering Lands with Wilderness Characteristics in the BLM Land Use Planning Process, however, provide guidance for lands with wilderness characteristics based on the FLPMA requirements for ongoing inventory of public lands and preparation of land use plans under Section 201 and Section 202, respectively.  Manual 6330, Management of BLM Wilderness Study Areas, which replaced the 1995 IMP, provides management direction for those areas identified as WSAs through the BLM’s Section 202 authority, including any such designations after 1993 but before the Norton Settlement in 2003.2   

Understanding those prior positions, the BLM is now taking a different one. The Office of the Solicitor has recently confirmed the BLM’s legal authority to change its policy relating to WSA designations.  While Section 603 of FLPMA provides specific timelines for wilderness review and supplies an interim management standard for WSAs, nothing in the text of Section 603 supplants the BLM’s authority under Sections 201, 202, and 302 to inventory, designate through land use planning, and manage lands with wilderness resources so as not to impair their suitability for preservation as designated wilderness.  On the contrary, FLPMA’s direction to manage public lands under multiple use and sustained yield principles, as contemplated in Sections 202 and 302(a) of FLPMA, provides the BLM with broad authority and discretion, including to manage wilderness resources using a non-impairment standard.  And nothing in FLPMA – which does not use the term “wilderness study area” or “WSA” – prevents the BLM from referring to those areas as WSAs.    

Accordingly, this IB and accompanying manual revisions clarify the BLM’s discretion under Sections 201 and 202 of FLPMA to continue to inventory for lands with wilderness characteristics and, where the BLM determines to be appropriate through a land use planning process, elect to manage lands to avoid impairing wilderness characteristics, including by designating such areas as WSAs.  While a WSA designated under Section 202 of FLPMA would be managed under a non-impairment standard, the BLM would retain discretion, through a future land use planning process, to change its designation of these Section 202 WSAs (unlike the WSAs previously designated under Section 603 of FLPMA).  To summarize, consistent with FLPMA and this policy, the BLM has the authority and discretion under Section 202 of FLPMA to designate lands with wilderness characteristics as a WSA and manage such lands under the non-impairment standard, and to change that designation and associated management of those lands in the future. 

Use of the WSA designation would not constrain the BLM’s discretion as to whether and how to manage lands with wilderness characteristics in land use plans, including to preserve some, or all, or none of the wilderness characteristics.  Instead, it would further support a spectrum of conservation options for management of wilderness resources by reinstituting a term and an associated management approach that evokes a clear directive that is already well understood by the BLM and the public.  Overall, this change in policy supports the BLM’s implementation of FLPMA.

If you have questions regarding this IB please contact Peter Keller, Wilderness Program Lead at pkeller@blm.gov.