9 Resource Management Plans Determine How 20M-Plus Acres of Public Land Will Be Used

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees a quarter-billion acres of public lands across the nation, most of which is in the Western states and Alaska. To ensure that its management of these public lands reflects the best available science and the public’s interest in these lands, the agency revises its plans for each of the more than 100 planning areas—designated regions that it oversees—every 20 years. BLM plans manage surface (i.e. ground-level) land and subsurface areas, which comprise the significant tracts of minerals that lie beneath BLM- and U.S. Forest Service-managed lands.

These maps show the nine plans released in 2019 and early 2020, including eight draft plans covering 11 million acres in the Western U.S. and the Bering Sea-Western Interior Management Plan, which encompasses 13 million acres in Alaska. Together, these documents will guide the management of 24 million acres of U.S. public lands.