Land and Natural Resource Planning System Used by the Bureau of Land Management

A study of the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) land and natural resource planning system was performed to determine whether it was developing its land use plans in accordance with its established policies and procedures and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. Many of the plans were developed on the basis of incomplete natural resources inventories, did not contain specific recommendations on how resources should be used, and did not set priorities. BLM should require its District offices to identify what additional resources need to be inventoried and make efforts to complete inventories before plans are developed or revised, emphasize the importance of making specific recommendations in plans on how natural resources should be used, and set priorities on land use decisions for use in allocating resources during the budgetary process.