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Secretary of Interior Issues Order on Policy to Identify and Protect "Wild Lands"

News release: “A secretarial order issued [December 23, 2010] by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar restores balance and clarity to the management of public lands by establishing common-sense policy for the protection of backcountry areas where Americans recreate, find solitude, and enjoy the wild. Secretarial Order 3310 directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), based on the input of the public and local communities through its existing land management planning process, to designate appropriate areas with wilderness characteristics under its jurisdiction as “Wild Lands” and to manage them to protect their wilderness values. The BLM, which manages more land than any other federal agency, has not had any comprehensive national wilderness policy since 2003, when the wilderness management guidance in the agency’s handbook was revoked as part of a controversial out-of-court settlement between then-Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, the State of Utah, and other parties.”

  • To read the BLM’s draft guidance to its field managers for implementing the Secretarial Order, click here for an inventory manual and here for a planning manual.
  • Q and A document can be found click here.
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