Bureau of Land Management Buys Conservation Valued Lands

Bureau of Land Management Buys Conservation Valued Lands



2007 September -   A piece of property located 
within the Idaho Snake River Area of Critical Environmental Concern is 
among the first to be purchased from a willing seller under a new law that 
established a fund to allow federal agencies to buy lands for the American 
people. 
The Bureau of Land Management, BLM, is buying the Idaho land and also 
properties within or adjacent to California's Coachella Valley Fringe-Toed 
Lizard Area of Critical Environmental Concern; the North Platte River 
Special Recreation Management Area in Wyoming; and the El Camino Real de 
Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail in New Mexico. 
These purchases are part of a larger federal land acquisition program that 
is now underway. BLM and three other federal land-management agencies are 
in the process of acquiring 19 parcels of land in seven Western states 
with $18 million from a special land conservation fund. 
The fund, established by Congress under a law passed in 2000, authorizes 
the purchase of private "inholdings" from willing sellers in the Western 
states whose acreage is surrounded by or located next to certain lands 
under the management of the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, 
the Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the BLM. 
"The $18 million to be used for these land purchases will bring into 
public ownership 19 properties with extraordinary natural, scenic, 
recreational, or historical values," said Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn 
Scarlett. "These purchases promote conservation while helping ensure 
efficient and effective public lands management." 
The first of their kind to occur under the Federal Land Transaction 
Facilitation Act, FLTFA, of 2000, the purcases are funded from completed 
sales of other federal lands. 
Under this law, the BLM is authorized to sell fragmented or isolated 
parcels of public land that are difficult to manage, as well as lands that 
may have residential or commercial value, and then use the proceeds to 
support land conservation purposes. 
"The benefits of this sale authority law are clear," said Scarlett, who 
noted that FLTFA is set to expire in 2010. 
"I urge Congress to support this administration’s proposal to extend the 
law from 2010 to 2018 so that more Americans may benefit from these type 
of land acquisitions," she said. 
Of the 19 land parcels, covering about 9,000 acres, the BLM is acquiring 
10 parcels covering 3,200 acres at a combined cost of about $10 million. 
The Forest Service, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service 
are buying the other nine parcels, covering 5,800 acres, at a combined 
cost of about $8 million. 
The properties to be acquired are located within national parks, national 
wildlife refuges, national forests, national monuments, national wild and 
scenic river corridors, national historic trail corridors, and areas of 
critical environmental concern. 
The remaining 15 properties are located in Arizona, California, Colorado, 
Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wyoming. 
All of the remaining parcels to be purchased are at various stages of 
negotiation with private landowners, and, Scarlett says that "because of 
privacy concerns," they cannot be further identified until the 
acquisitions have been completed. 

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