Hard to tell yet if this is for the good or not, but further stories will tell us.
BLM reorganization plan sparks wilderness alarm
Diverse group of activists, lawmakers worries Bureau of Land Management will have less control over 26 million acres, more than half of which are in California. BLM hasn't publicly detailed its intentions.
By David Whitney - Bee Washington Bureau
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, December 23, 2006
The Bureau of Land Management is considering a reorganization that environmentalists and a bipartisan group of House of Representatives members worry could dilute the agency's protection of millions of acres of conservation lands in the West.
The BLM manages about 258 million acres, and among its traditional workload are mining, grazing and timber programs. But it also maintains about 26 million acres under its National Landscape Conservation System. Much of that is in wilderness or national monuments and conservation areas, with more than half the total acreage in California.
The proposal would bring under the umbrella of the NLCS a variety of unrelated programs that, on paper, could make it seem as though substantially more money is being spent on conservation when on-the-ground spending is actually shrinking.
