Budget justifications and performance information, fiscal year 2023 : Bureau of Land Management

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by  United States. Department of the Interior. Office of Budget

BUDGET The United States
Department of the Interior
JUSTIFICATIONS
and Performance Information
Fiscal Year 2023
BUREAU OF
LAND MANAGEMENT
NOTICE: These budget
justifications are prepared
for the Interior, Environment
and Related Agencies
Appropriations
Subcommittees. Approval for
release of the justifications
prior to their printing in
the public record of the
Subcommittee hearings
may be obtained through
the Office of Budget of the
Department of the Interior.
Printed on
Recycled Paper
This page is intentionally left blank.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ I-1
II. Crosscutting Programs .................................................................................................................. II-1
III. Budget at a Glance ....................................................................................................................... III-1
IV. Collections .................................................................................................................................... IV-1
V. Management of Lands and Resources ......................................................................................... V-1
Appropriations Language ................................................................................................................ V-1
Appropriations Language Citations ................................................................................................. V-2
Authorizations .................................................................................................................................. V-3
Summary of Requirements ............................................................................................................ V-31
Justification of Fixed Costs and Internal Realignments................................................................. V-33
Activity: Land Resources ............................................................................................................... V-35
Subactivity: Rangeland Management ............................................................................... V-37
Subactivity: Public Domain Forest Management ............................................................. V-43
Subactivity: Cultural Resources Management .................................................................. V-49
Subactivity: Wild Horse & Burro Management ............................................................... V-53
Activity: Wildlife and Aquatic Habitat Management .................................................................... V-57
Subactivity: Aquatic Habitat Management ....................................................................... V-59
Subactivity: Wildlife Habitat Management ...................................................................... V-63
Activity: Recreation Management ................................................................................................. V-69
Subactivity: Wilderness Management .............................................................................. V-71
Subactivity: Recreation Resources Management .............................................................. V-75
Activity: Energy and Minerals Management ................................................................................. V-79
Subactivity: Oil and Gas Management ............................................................................. V-81
Subactivity: Coal Management ......................................................................................... V-89
Subactivity: Other Mineral Resources .............................................................................. V-93
Subactivity: Renewable Energy Management .................................................................. V-97
Activity: Realty and Ownership Management ............................................................................. V-101
Subactivity: Alaska Conveyance and Lands ................................................................... V-103
Subactivity: Cadastral, Lands & Realty Management .................................................... V-105
Activity: Communication Site Management ............................................................................... V-109
Activity: Resource Protection and Maintenance .......................................................................... V-111
Subactivity: Resource Management Planning ................................................................ V-113
Subactivity: Resource Protection and Law Enforcement ............................................... V-119
Subactivity: Abandoned Mine Lands & Hazardous Materials Management ................. V-121
Activity: Transportation and Facilities Maintenance ................................................................... V-125
Subactivity: Annual Maintenance & Operational Costs ................................................. V-127
Subactivity: Deferred Maintenance & Capital Improvements ........................................ V-131
Activity: National Conservation Lands ....................................................................................... V-137
Subactivity: Nat'l Monuments & Nat'l Conservation Areas ........................................... V-137
Activity: Workforce and Organizational Support ........................................................................ V-141
Subactivity: Administrative Support .............................................................................. V-145
Bureau of Land Management 2023 Budget Justifications
Subactivity: Bureauwide Fixed Costs ............................................................................. V-149
Subactivity: Information Technology Management ....................................................... V-151
Activity: Mining Law Administration ......................................................................................... V-153
VI. Land Acquisition .......................................................................................................................... VI-1
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................... VI-1
Appropriations Language Citations and Authorizations ................................................................. VI-1
Summary of Requirements ............................................................................................................. VI-3
Activity: Land Acquisition ............................................................................................................. VI-3
Subactivity: Land Acquisition ........................................................................................... VI-7
Subactivity: Recreational Access ....................................................................................... VI-9
Subactivity: Emergencies, Hardships, and Inholdings .................................................... VI-11
Subactivity: Acquisition Management ............................................................................. VI-13
VII. Oregon and California Grant Lands......................................................................................... VII-1
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................. VII-1
Appropriations Language Citations and Authorization ................................................................ VII-2
Summary of Requirements ........................................................................................................... VII-6
Justification of Fixed Costs and Internal Realignments................................................................ VII-7
Appropriation Description ............................................................................................................ VII-8
Activity: Western Oregon Acquisition ....................................................................................... VII-17
Activity: Western Oregon Transportation and Facilities Maintenance....................................... VII-19
Subactivity: Annual Maintenance & Operations………………………………….......VII-19
Activity: Western Oregon Resources Management .................................................................... VII-21
Activity: Western Oregon Information and Data Systems ......................................................... VII-27
Activity: Western Oregon National Conservation Lands ........................................................... VII-29
VIII. Range Improvements ................................................................................................................ VIII-1
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................ VIII-1
Appropriations Language Citations and Authorizations .............................................................. VIII-2
Summary of Requirements .......................................................................................................... VIII-4
Activity: Range Improvements .................................................................................................... VIII-5
IX. Service Charges, Deposits, and Forfeitures ............................................................................... IX-1
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................... IX-1
Appropriations Language Citations and Authorizations ................................................................. IX-3
Summary of Requirements ............................................................................................................. IX-4
Appropriation: Service Changes, Deposits, and Forfeitures (Indefinite) ........................................ IX-5
X. Great American Outdoors Act ..................................................................................................... X-1
XI. Miscellaneous Permanent Payments .......................................................................................... XI-1
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Bureau of Land Management 2023 Budget Justifications
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................... XI-1
Explanation ..................................................................................................................................... XI-1
Authorizations ................................................................................................................................. XI-2
Summary of Requirements ............................................................................................................. XI-6
Appropriation: Miscellaneous Permanent Payments ...................................................................... XI-7
Total Payments of BLM Receipts to States and Counties .............................................................. XI-9
XII. Permanent Operating Funds .................................................................................................... XII-1
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................. XII-1
Explanation ................................................................................................................................... XII-1
Authorizations ............................................................................................................................... XII-1
Summary of Requirements ........................................................................................................... XII-6
Appropriation: Permanent Operating Funds ................................................................................. XII-7
XIII. Miscellaneous Trust Funds ...................................................................................................... XIII-1
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................ XIII-1
Authorizations .............................................................................................................................. XIII-2
Summary of Requirements .......................................................................................................... XIII-3
Activity: Miscellaneous Trust Funds (Current and Permanent) .................................................. XIII-4
XIV. Helium Fund and Operations ................................................................................................... XIV-1
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................ XIV-1
Explanation .................................................................................................................................. XIV-1
Summary of Requirements .......................................................................................................... XIV-2
Activity: Helium Fund and Operations ........................................................................................ XIV-3
XV. Administrative Provisions ........................................................................................................... XV-1
Appropriations Language ............................................................................................................. XV-1
Appropriations Language Citations and Authorizations ............................................................... XV-1
XVI. Appendices ... ........................................................................................................................... XVI-1
Employee Count by Grade .......................................................................................................... XVI-1
BLM Organization Chart ............................................................................................................ XVI-2
DOI 12 Unified Regions ............................................................................................................. XVI-3
List of Acronyms ........................................................................................................................ XVI-4
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Bureau of Land Management 2023 Budget Justifications
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Table of Contents Page-iv
Bureau of Land Management 2023 Budget Justifications
2023 Executive Summary
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was established in 1946, but its history dates back much further.
With roots going back to the earliest days of the Nation, the BLM administers the public lands that remain
from America's original "public domain." Today, the BLM proudly manages 1 in every 10 acres of land in
the United States and approximately one-third of the Nation's onshore mineral resources on behalf of current
and future generations of Americans. The BLM’s mission of multiple use and sustained yield supports
many of the Department’s high priority goals, including conservation, recreation, and job creation and
stability, by supporting working landscapes and responsible development of renewable energy. The vast
public lands administered by BLM provide a multitude of benefits to the Nation and local communities.
They provide timber, forage, energy resources, a wide variety of recreation opportunities and vital fish and
wildlife habitat, to name but a few. These lands also deliver clean air and clean water. We depend upon
them for our health and wellbeing. These lands encompass some of the Nation’s most historic and scenic
landscapes. The ecosystems across these lands range from arctic tundra to desert, to forest, to sagebrush
steppe and prairie
About 10,000 BLM employees manage a vast portfolio of public lands across approximately 245 million
surface acres, primarily located in 12 western States, including Alaska, and in scattered tracts east of and
bordering the Mississippi River. The BLM also administers approximately 700 million acres of subsurface
mineral estate throughout the Nation, as well as mineral operations and cadastral surveys on 58 million
acres of Indian trust lands. The BLM manages more fish, wildlife, and plant habitat than any other Federal
or State agency in the country; more than 3,000 species of wildlife spend all or part of their lives on BLM-
managed public lands. The Department estimates that $10.6 billion in economic activity and thousands of
jobs are associated with the recreation, grazing, energy, and timber programs of the Bureau. Building
partnerships and being a good neighbor to the communities surrounding BLM-managed lands is essential
to the Bureau’s success.
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) sets forth the BLM’s diverse mission of
multiple-use and sustained yield. The BLM’s mission advances the President’s priorities of protecting and
sustaining public lands and the wildlife, natural resources, and ecosystems they encompass for current and
future generations of Americans, while also emphasizing the importance of these lands to the Nation’s
economy and the lives and livelihoods of millions of people across the country.
Collaboration and cooperation are vital to managing sustainable, working public lands. This means
respecting the ties that communities have to public lands and welcoming and valuing diverse views. The
Bureau engages a wide range of stakeholders and communities to help guide and inform its land
management decisions and maintain public trust. Lands managed by the BLM also include millions of acres
that are of cultural, religious, and historic significance to hundreds of federally recognized Tribes.
Thousands of cultural sites on public lands contain evidence of human occupation dating back as many as
15,000 years. As a result, the BLM has significant Federal trust responsibilities to protect these resources,
as well as to abide by Tribal treaty rights and consult with American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and
Chapter I – Executive Summary Page I-1
Bureau of Land Management 2023 Budget Justifications

villages on actions and decisions that may affect them. The BLM’s mission advances the President’s
priority of strengthening the government-to-government relationship with sovereign Tribal Nations.

The landscapes managed by the BLM face a host of growing challenges of enormous scale and complexity.
Most prominent among them is climate change, which is exacerbating drought and water scarcity,
accelerating the spread of invasive species, contributing to the scale and intensity of wildfires, and posing
an increasing threat to native wildlife and ecosystems. These landscape-scale challenges confront public
and private land managers across the West, dwarfing the ability of any one agency, State, or organization
to address alone. The Nation’s public lands also face demands from America’s rapidly increasing and
diversifying population, from increasing visitation for outdoor recreation to additional demands for clean
energy, mineral resources, timber, and other products. To ensure the long-term viability and productivity
of our public lands, it is imperative that the BLM ensures a balance to its multiple-use management
approach. The BLM will work with Federal, State, Tribal, and private partners to address these challenges
at a landscape scale to improve wildlife habitat, protect migration corridors, and focus on landscape
resilience.

To meet our obligation to the American public, the Biden-Harris Administration has launched the America
the Beautiful initiative, a decade-long challenge to pursue a locally-led and voluntary nationwide effort to
conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife upon which we all depend. As part of this
effort, the BLM will prioritize conservation and restoration of BLM lands, with a particular emphasis on
climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. In carrying out its responsibilities under FLPMA, the
BLM will be guided by the report to the National Climate Task Force, titled “Conserving and Restoring
America the Beautiful,” which outlines the goal of conserving and restoring 30 percent of the Nation’s lands
and waters by 2030 for the sake of the Nation’s economy, health, and well-being. As part of the initiative,
the agency will seek ways to achieve more equitable access to public lands for all people in America. The
BLM will continue to undertake this process with broad engagement from partners and stakeholders,
including outdoor enthusiasts, Tribal Nations, States and territories, local officials, the agricultural
community, and other important partners and stakeholders to identify shared strategies and outcomes. In
addition, the BLM expects the new congressionally chartered Foundation for America’s Public Lands to
play a key role in bringing together public and private partners and leveraging resources to support the
America the Beautiful initiative as part of its work to help the BLM achieve its mission on behalf of the
American people.

The BLM will also be guided by Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and
Abroad,” and Executive Order 13990, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring
Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,” and associated initiatives to address impacts related to climate change
and environmental justice from energy development on public lands.

2023 Budget Request Overview

The FY 2023 BLM budget proposes significant investments in support of the President’s agenda to address
the climate crisis, restore balance on public lands and waters, promote a clean energy future, reclaim

Chapter I – Executive Summary Page I-2
Bureau of Land Management 2023 Budget Justifications

abandoned wells and mines, and create good-paying jobs that include a free and fair chance to join a union.
This includes investments to restore and conserve BLM-managed lands to strengthen climate change
resiliency, adaptation, and mitigation, which will contribute to President Biden’s America the Beautiful
initiative. Likewise, budget increases reflect initiatives that support programmatic environmental justice for
all underserved communities, including many displaced by the conventional energy sector and those most
vulnerable to climate change. In fulfilling its mission, the BLM will honor and advance the Administration’s
commitment to undergo meaningful consultation with Tribal Nations as we endeavor, together, to be good
stewards of the public lands. The BLM estimates its staffing will support 10,592 full-time equivalents
(FTEs) in 2023, an increase of 760 from the 2022 Continuing Resolution level.
As population growth in the West has expanded, the BLM has faced a corresponding rise in public demand
for uses of the public lands. The BLM strives to balance these demands while conserving and managing the
public lands for traditional uses such as ranching, wildlife conservation, and open spaces. In many cases,
the BLM’s management efforts across all these uses contribute to the vitality of local economies and
recreational opportunities, and deliver benefits to all Americans.
In FY 2023, the BLM will continue to improve the visitor experience to public lands by addressing
infrastructure and maintenance needs. The BLM will prioritize implementation of the Great American
Outdoors Act, which will enable the agency to significantly reduce and restructure its deferred maintenance
backlog to more effectively support public safety, visitor access, and enjoyment both now and for future
generations. The BLM is committed to fulfilling the agency’s trust responsibilities and modernizing the
organization to reduce or eliminate duplicative activities while maintaining rigorous environmental
standards.
Interior bureaus and offices use field communications to carry out critical operations including land and
resource management, scientific studies, emergency management, law enforcement, and wildland
firefighting. The 2023 request includes $28.6 million across several Interior bureaus and offices (Bureau of
Indian Affairs, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and the
Office of the Chief Information Officer) for field communication modernization in the Great Lakes (Region
3), Mississippi Basin (Region 4), the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Land and resource
management, scientific studies, emergency management, wildland fire and law enforcement mission areas,
where agency policy permits and technology aligns, will have access to capabilities such as local control
over the network to assign users and create talk groups, and determine who can access or manage mobile
devices and platform applications. This investment will deploy mobile broadband connectivity and provide
employees working in the field with voice, video, and data capabilities for all missions. Where it makes
sense, the deployment of these capabilities will enhance or replace a voice-only, mid-20th century land
mobile radio technology with technology that is cheaper to operate and maintain. As build-out in these
initial regions is completed, DOI’s field communication governance body (consisting of bureaus,
crosscutting program coordinators, and OCIO) will take the lessons learned from this investment to other
regions to reduce operations and maintenance costs while increasing communication capability.

Chapter I – Executive Summary Page I-3
Bureau of Land Management 2023 Budget Justifications

The BLM’s budget request addresses key Administration priorities, including timber and rangeland
resource management to avoid and reduce the spread of catastrophic wildland fire, foster resilient
landscapes, and protect local communities. The request also reflects and strengthens the Administration’s
commitment in the following areas:

1. Strengthening Climate Resilience and Conservation Partnerships
2. Accelerating Responsible Development of Renewable Energy on Public Lands
3. Creating Family-Supporting and Union Jobs
4. Implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
5. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Partnerships

Strengthening Climate Resilience and Conservation Partnerships

The FY 2023 budget proposes program increases to enhance the restoration and conservation of BLM-
managed lands that will contribute to the America the Beautiful initiative, improve equitable access to the
outdoors, and strengthen the economy. That enhancement supports Interior’s core mission and contributes
to President Biden’s goal to conserve 30 percent of the Nation’s land and water by 2030, which will help
address the climate crisis, improve equitable access to the outdoors, and strengthen the economy. The
budget provides new tools to help the BLM meet the monumental challenge of restoring and conserving
BLM lands to increase ecosystem function, resilience, and adaptability. To support these efforts, the BLM
requests $299.4 million under the Land Resources Activity, which provides for integrated management of
public land resources, including forestry, range, and cultural resources, as well as wild horses and burro
management.

To foster restoration of landscape connectivity and function, the BLM requests $29.7 million. These funds
will be used to eradicate and control invasive species, re-establish native plant communities, and carry out
other forms of restoration. Invasive species are a pervasive problem on BLM lands and waters; in terrestrial
ecosystems, climate change is driving additional drought and fire, which makes it tougher to control
invasive species. This work will improve habitat and support increased landscape connectivity and
terrestrial and aquatic wildlife movement. Funding in Public Domain Forest Management will help restore
forest structure and composition to improve wildfire and climate resilience. The BLM requests $158.4
million in Wildlife Habitat Management to advance efforts to identify, protect, conserve, and restore
functional, landscape-level wildlife migration, dispersal, and daily movement corridors for big game,
migratory birds, pollinators, and at-risk species. The BLM will also identify and protect important seasonal
habitats to improve connectivity and address habitat fragmentation.

To support the work to be done, the budget includes an increase of $12.0 million to help establish and
support the Civilian Climate Corps (CCC). The CCC will enable the BLM to leverage the skills of young
adults and veterans to improve the public lands, build a new generation of land and natural resource
managers, and provide a pathway to good-paying jobs. To help implement restoration projects, the BLM
provides strong support for the National Seed Strategy through the nationwide network of seed collectors,
farmers and growers, nurseries, and seed storage facilities, and through research to develop science-based

Chapter I – Executive Summary Page I-4