Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wilderness Review Issues

Publication Date: August 2004

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Environment

Type:

Abstract:

Congress has directed the federal land management agencies to evaluate the suitability of certain federal lands for possible inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System, a System that provides a high level of protection to lands within it. Section 603 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directed the Secretary of the Interior to review the wilderness potential of certain BLM lands and to recommend areas by 1991. Most of the recommendations are still pending. Section 603 also required that the wilderness suitability of the areas studied (known as wilderness study areas or WSAs) not be impaired until Congress has decided whether to include them in the System. BLM wilderness issues are controversial, in part because both sides have an interest in the status of the WSAs, views differ as to whether new wilderness reviews can still be done and new wilderness study areas created in BLM planning, aside from §603, and because BLM land use plans are not required to be revised on a definite cycle. Recent modifications of related past agency guidance have highlighted the controversy. Legislation to designate wilderness areas and to end WSA status has been introduced. This report will be revised as circumstances warrant.