Bureau of Land Management

“ MANAGEMENT OF CONSERVATION AREA AND WILDERNESS. (a) Withdrawal- Subject to valid existing rights, all Federal land within the Conservation Area and the Wilderness and all land and interests in land acquired by the United States within the Conservation Area or the Wilderness is withdrawn from— (1) all forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws; (2) location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and (3) operation of the mineral leasing, mineral materials, and geothermal leasing laws. ”

“ Now, with the change in management, it's time to take inventory. The Federal Government owns some 730 million acres-about one-third of the total land area of the United States. The Department of Interior has jurisdiction over most of that, including our national parks, wildlife refuges, wilderness lands, wetlands, and coastal barriers. Not included in those 730 million acres are our offshore coastal waters, the Outer Continental Shelf, which is also Interior's responsibility. ”

“ In order to ensure that Federally owned lands, other than the real property covered by this order, are managed in the most effective and economic manner, the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior shall take such steps as are appropriate to improve their management of public lands and National Forest System lands and shall develop appropriate legislative proposals necessary to facilitate that result. ”

“ Let our government instead take over all private, state, or federal unproductive lands, whether it is fertile, arid or marsh. Statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Agriculture Economics on federal rural lands, on page 7, shows that the federal lands, swamps and marshes are 3,000,000 acres, barren and brush land 40,000,000 acres, non-forested range land 234,000,000 acres, crop land 4,000,000 acres ”

“ Range Improvements For rehabilitation, protection, and acquisition of lands and interests therein, and improvement of Federal rangelands pursuant to section 401 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701) , notwithstanding any other Act, sums equal to 50 percent of all moneys received during the prior fiscal year under sections 3 and 15 of the Taylor Grazing Act (43 U.S.C. 315 et seq.) ”

“ Consistent with the forest conservation requirements of the country, we have directed the Bureau of Forestry and the Bureau of Lands to speed up the re-classification of forest lands suitable to agriculture and to release these as alien­able and disposable lands as soon as possible so that the legitimate desire of our landless citizens to own land and become independent farmers can be fulfilled. ”

“ At present the protection of the forest reserves rests with the General Land Office, the mapping and description of their timber with the United States Geological Survey, and the preparation of plans for their conservative use with the Bureau of Forestry, which is also charged with the general advancement of practical forestry in the United States. These various functions should be united in the Bureau of Forestry, to which they properly belong. The present diffusion of responsibility is bad from every standpoint. ”

“ In terms of legal and institutional machinery, in fact, such a river basin agency is the most basic and urgent unfulfilled need along the Potomac, for the coordination and continuing supervision of water management in all its phases—assurance of supply, flood protection, quality improvement, recreation—in the vast physical unit of land drained by the river. And because land's condition is so often influential on the quality and utility of water, the agency's concern and authority must encompass some fundamental matters of land use as well. ”

“ Priority– In evaluating applications under the program, the Secretary may give priority to land that is currently enrolled in the conservation reserve program in a contract that is set to expire within 1 year and—
(1) in the case of an agricultural land easement, is grassland that would benefit from protection under a long-term easement; and (2) in the case of a wetland easement, is a wetland or related area with the highest functions and value and is likely to return to production after the land leaves the conservation reserve program. ”

“ The Secretary shall allocate acres to States for enrollment, based—
(1) primarily on each State’s proportion of eligible land to the total acreage of eligible land in all States; and (2) also on consideration of— (A) the extent and magnitude of the conservation needs associated with agricultural production in each State; (B) the degree to which implementation of the program in the State is, or will be, effective in helping producers address those needs; and (C) other considerations to achieve equitable geographic distribution of funds, as determined by the Secretary . ”

“ Such techniques are the basis of existing programs of the Soil Conservation Service and the Forest Service that have proved their effectiveness over many years of rural application. Watershed planning with small reservoirs, check dams, and terraces backed up [Pg 57a] by good land treatment and use, soil surveys, wise forestry practices, and such things are stimulated and bolstered in these programs by technical and financial assistance given to private landowners, States, and local organizations. ”

“ Each executive branch agency with statutory or administrative responsibility for the management of Federal lands shall, as appropriate, promptly implement procedures for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of section 1 of this order, including, where practicable and appropriate, procedures to ensure reasonable notice is provided of proposed actions or land management policies that may restrict future access to or ceremonial use of, or adversely affect the physical integrity of, sacred sites. ”

“ As the Nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has basic responsibilities for water, fish, wildlife, mineral, land, park and recreational resources. Indian and territorial affairs are other major concerns of America’s “Department of Natural Resources.” The Department works to assure the wisest choice in managing all our resources so each will make its full contribution to a better United States—now and in the future. ”

“ I particularly direct your attention to the very practical plans which the Secretary of the Interior has developed in his annual report and before your Committees for the reclamation of arid, swamp, and cutover lands which might, if the States were willing and able to cooperate, redeem some three hundred million acres of land for cultivation. There are said to be fifteen or twenty million acres of land in the West, at present arid, for whose reclamation water is available, if properly conserved. ”

“ The purposes of the program are to—
(1) combine the purposes and coordinate the functions of the wetlands reserve program established under section 1237, the grassland reserve program established under section 1238N, and the farmland protection program established under section 1238I, as such sections were in effect on September 30, 2013; (2) restore, protect, and enhance wetlands on eligible land; (3) protect the agricultural use and related conservation values of eligible land by limiting nonagricultural uses of that land ”

“ The best use of the public grazing lands requires the careful examination and classification of these lands in order to give each settler land enough to support his family and no more. While this work is being done, and until the lands are settled, the Government should take control of the open range, under reasonable regulations suited to local needs, following the general policy already in successful operation on the forest reserves. ”

“ Leasing consistency Federal land managers must follow existing resource management plans and continue to actively lease in areas designated as open when resource management plans are being amended or revised, until such time as a new record of decision is signed. ”

“ If agricultural facilities must be built, they must be related to local agricultural production and management. Urban-rural development zones: Urban growth management, the linkage impact of development trends, public construction timelines, and the completeness of water, power and gas supply telecommunications systems. The central competent authority shall establish regulations regarding the required contents and formats of documents and plans to be submitted with land use permit applications, referred to in the two preceding paragraphs, and the conditions of their approval. ”

“ Congress ought to trust the executive to use the power of reservation only with respect to land covered by timber or which will be useful in the plan of reforestation. During the present administration 6,250,000 acres of land, largely non-timbered, have been excluded from forest reserves, and 3,500,000 acres of land principally valuable for forest purposes have been included in forest reserves, making a reduction in forest reserves of non-timbered land amounting to 2,750,000 acres. ”

“ In a very short time it became evident there were other important questions involved in the regulating of forests, primarily the grave necessity of creating forest reserves and protecting them from depreciation by Government control and administration; and the establishment of a Bureau of Forestry was advocated. The National Board of Trade was also a pioneer in advocating the reclamation of arid lands and the drainage of swamp and overflow lands and practical reforestation, and adopted resolutions urging legislation to this end. ”

“ Consistent with the conservation of soil, water quality, and wildlife habitat (including habitat during nesting seasons for birds in the area) , and in exchange for a reduction of not less than 25 percent in the annual rental rate for the acres covered by the authorized activity— (A) managed harvesting and other commercial use (including the managed harvesting of biomass) , except that in permitting managed harvesting, the Secretary , in coordination with the State technical committee— (i) shall develop appropriate vegetation management requirements ”