WASHINGTON - Inadequate funding and staffing have left the Bureau of
Land Management ill-equipped to manage its premier Western lands, putting
nationally significant natural and cultural resources at risk. The agency’s
management shortcomings are detailed in a first assessment of the BLM’s 26
million-acre National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), released today by
the Wilderness Society and World Resources Institute.
“Conservation is supposed to be the priority for these places, but, despite
the presence of many talented and committed managers, BLM simply is not getting
the job done,” said The Wilderness Society’s Wendy VanAsselt, one of the authors
of the report, State of the National Landscape Conservation System: A First
Assessment. “The System needs more funding, more staffing, and a true
commitment from Interior Department leadership to long-term protection of these
irreplaceable treasures.”
The NLCS was established five years ago, under the leadership of Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt, to conserve, protect, and restore the Bureau of Land
Management’s most scenic and significant lands and waters. It includes National
Monuments, National Conservation Areas, Wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas,
Historic Trails, and Wild and Scenic Rivers.
The report grades the BLM’s Conservation System in seven categories, based
on a review of more than 35 indicators ranging from natural resource monitoring
to accountability, and uses BLM data and information. The Conservation System
scores no higher than a “C” in any category, although some individual places
merited A’s and B’s for select issues of stewardship and management. The
full report and background information is available at:
http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/StateOfTheNLCS2005.cfm
“The National Landscape Conservation System was created to
safeguard landscapes that are as spectacular in their own way as
our National Parks,” said former Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt.
“There is clear evidence, however, that we are at risk of moving backwards
and failing to adequately protect these special American lands. The
Department of the Interior and our leaders in Congress should take the
recommendations of this report to heart and support the conservation mission of
the NLCS before it is too late.”
The report asserts that BLM managers are hobbled by inadequate budgets.
Although the NLCS represents approximately 10 percent of the 261 million acres
managed by the BLM, including a large number of the BLM’s most publicly visited
lands and waters, it receives just 2.5 percent of the Agency’s $1.8 billion
budget. A consequence of this under-funding is a glaring lack of field staff to
address inappropriate off-road vehicle use, vandalism, and other problems. For
the 15 places assessed, each ranger patrols an average of 200,000 acres.
“Many of these National Monuments and Conservation areas already struggle
with vandalism of archaeological sites, illegal off-road vehicle use, grazing
damage, and the pressure of growing visitor use, as the lands around these
protected areas become more developed,” said VanAsselt. “Unfortunately, almost
every NLCS unit lacks adequate law enforcement staff, archaeological expertise,
and scientists. The BLM also lacks the resources for comprehensive visitor
management planning.”
Considered by many to be the “hidden treasures of the American West,” the
lands and waters of the National Landscape Conservation System are experiencing
rapidly increasing visitor numbers. For example, the number of visitors to
the five BLM National Monuments in Arizona has doubled since 2000. Some of
the fastest growing urban areas in the West border or surround NLCS lands,
including Palm Springs, Tucson, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.
Many NLCS lands are threatened by excessive road networks that fragment
wildlife habitat and bring motorized vehicles perilously close to cultural
resources, such as archeological sites that, in most cases, have not yet been
studied by the BLM. On average, 50 percent of the land in NLCS monuments and
conservation areas is within one-half mile of a road or travel route, and 90
percent is within two miles of a road or route.
The assessment also uncovered an urgent need for better monitoring by the
BLM of the most special aspects of the Conservation System, such as threatened
species, water quality, and cultural sites. For example, the agency has only
comprehensively inventoried cultural and historic resources in an estimated 6-7
percent of the total area encompassed by the National Monuments and Conservation
Areas, and monitoring programs are equally deficient.
“The BLM should view this report card as a wake-up call,” said Dr. David
Jhirad, Vice-President of Science and Research for World Resources
Institute. "The BLM must set clear conservation goals, and implement
effective systems to hold themselves accountable for achieving those goals. The
BLM needs to empower the staff of the NLCS, provide them with significantly more
resources, and issue annual reports on its own performance."
The assessment includes recommendations to help BLM better protect the
cultural and natural resources of the National Landscape Conservation
System. Among them:
- Increased staffing and financial resources dedicated to the Conservation
System by BLM.
- A better information base for conservation management, including more, or
better-organized, data collection.
- Completion of overdue management plans and implementation strategies.
- Immediate closure of harmful roads and routes.
- Full utilization of volunteers and academic partnerships to inventory,
monitor, and protect resources.
- Increased accountability, including the establishment of clear
conservation goals specific to the National Landscape Conservation System, and
a commitment from the agency to publicly track progress toward those goals.
“This report is important because it begins to create a system by which the
BLM and the country can tell how well the National Landscape Conservation System
is able to fulfill its mission,” said Dr. Anthony C. Janetos, Vice President at
the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment
NLCS Issue
Examined
System
score
Leadership, empowerment, and
accountability D
Planning for resource
conservation
N/A*
Protecting Wild and primitive
character C
Visitor management and law
enforcement
C
Natural resource
monitoring
C
Ecosystem and species
heath N/A
Cultural resources
management D
*N/A indicates not assessable due to insufficient data
The Wilderness Society’s mission is to ensure that future
generations will enjoy the clean air and water, wildlife, beauty, and
opportunity for recreation and renewal provided by pristine forests, rivers,
deserts, and mountains.
The World Resources Institute is an environmental think tank
that goes beyond research to create practical ways to protect the Earth and
improve peoples' lives.
Contact:
Wendy VanAsselt, The Wilderness Society, (202) 429-7431
Drew McConville, The Wilderness Society, (202) 429-7441
The National Landscape Conservation System at a Glance
Many National Landscape Conservation System units were created to protect
contiguous landscapes that preserve the ecological or cultural integrity of some
of the West’s most precious lands. For example, Arizona’s Agua Fria National
Monument contains hundreds of archaeological structures and sites that were
interrelated in a large community. To truly understand these ancient communities
in context and tell their story, it is essential to look at the entire system of
archaeological sites. Another example is the Grand Canyon-Parashant National
Monument, a truly landscape-scale unit that encompasses large parts of the
watershed of the Grand Canyon adjacent to the park.
Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Landscape
Conservation System includes:
· 15 National
Monuments;
· 13 National Conservation
Areas;
· Steens Mountain
Cooperative Management and Protection Area;
· Headwaters Forest
Reserve;
· 38 Wild and Scenic
Rivers;
· 175 Wilderness
Areas;
· 5,327 miles of National
Historic and Scenic Trails;
· more than 600 Wilderness
Study Areas.
Flagship places in the National Landscape Conservation System
include:
Grand
Canyon-Parashant National Monument (Arizona) -- A remote area on the edge of
one of the most awesome places on Earth, the Grand Canyon, this monument
includes both stark desert and high plateaus and is home to a collage of species
ranging from Mexican spotted owls to desert tortoises to mountain lions.
Carrizo Plains National Monument (California) -- Dramatically bisected by
the San Andreas Fault zone, the Carrizo Plain is home to the largest
concentration of endangered wildlife in all of California. Thirteen plant and
animal species have been state or federally listed as endangered, including the
California condor and the Joaquin kit fox.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (Colorado) -- This 164,000-acre
national monument includes the densest concentration of Anasazi Indian sites in
America—totaling more than 6,000 recorded sites so far.
Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Utah) -- In the heart of Utah’s Red
Rock Country, this monument includes bold plateaus and multi-hued cliffs and
slot canyons—a wonderland of recreational opportunities and one of the last
places in America to experience true solitude.
Upper
Missouri River Breaks National Monument (Montana) – Little has changed in
this stretch of the Missouri River since Lewis and Clark traveled through the
region more than 200 years ago. The monument includes some of the wildest
country on the Great Plains. Its spectacular cliff and rugged coulees provide
important habitat for elk, deer, antelope, and sage grouse.
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (Oregon) – In southwest Oregon,
Cascade-Siskiyou is a 53,000-acre landscape of exceptional geologic complexity
and a gateway to one of the great reservoirs of biodiversity in North
America.
Red
Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (Nevada) – Just 10 miles from the
city of Las Vegas, the mountains rise to a great colorful escarpment, formed
along a fault zone with peaks of more than 8,000 feet and huge cliffs and
ravines banded with gray, white, and red rock.
For more information about our National Monuments and the National
Landscape Conservation System, visit http://www.discoverNLCS.org
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