The Bureau of Land Management recently released a plan for managing recreation on the 245 million acres it oversees.
The Blueprint for 21st Century Outdoor Recreation lays out what the agency calls “several major shifts in how the agency prioritizes and supports outdoor recreation.”
The plan comes as the BLM – like many land agencies -- has seen a jump in visitation. It rose 40% since 2012, and much of that increase came since the pandemic started in 2020, according to the plan.
“I think this document is responding to how do we preserve these amazing wild experiences that you can have on BLM lands, given that there's more people out there, that there's more impacts of weather, and that the federal appropriations budget hasn't kept up with all of those things,” said Jessica Wahl Turner, president of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, which represents the outdoor industry.
The agency’s goals include improving workforce diversity, more accurately measuring visitation, and growing partnerships with other government entities, nonprofits and the private sector. To diversify revenue sources, the agency also “will examine fee collection to ensure that opportunities for collection available under current law are fully implemented,” the plan reads.
Wahl Turner says collecting more fees is just one option on the table, along with things like using youth corps for lower-cost recreation projects.
Comments on the plan can be sent to BLM_HQ_Recreation_Feedback@blm.gov.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
