Memorandums From the President on Public Land Resources

Memorandum for the Secretary of the Interior

In my Environmental Message of August 2, 1979, I recognized the importance of the 417 million acres of public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management for their energy and natural re. sources and their natural, scenic, and cultural values. I emphasized my Administration's commitment to purposeful management of these lands and resources in an environmentally sound and cost-effective manner. I am therefore directing you to manage the public lands administered by BLM in accordance with the following principles:

• The Federal Government will be a good steward of the land, seeking to find the best balance of uses to assure that resources are available to meet the Nation's needs and that environmental values are promptly and carefully protected.

• The Federal government will be a good neighbor, providing full opportunities for those affected by our management decisions to be involved in making them, with a special concern for the people and institutions of the Western States that are most directly affected.

• The Federal Government will make cost-effective investments in protecting and enhancing these lands within the constraints of fiscal responsibility.

• The Federal Government will seek to resolve conflicts among competing uses in a spirit of cooperation and trust, and will make—not avoid—tough decisions on the allocation of the valued resources of public lands.

Building on the progress we have made in the past two years, I am directing you to improve BLM's overall planning process by establishing a "program development process" for BLM which shall:

• present alternative programs for public investment on federal lands to achieve national objectives in an economically and environmentally sound manner;

• evaluate local, regional, and national demands and needs and assess and compare the value of public land goods and services with the public and private costs of providing such benefits;

• reflect evaluation and comment by the people of neighboring communities and other members of the public, and appropriate local, state, and federal officials;

• be accomplished by using ongoing assessment and planning programs and resources, to the extent possible, within the Bureau, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies and departments; and

• be coordinated with plans and programs called for by the Resources Planning Act and developed by the Forest Service and other federal agencies.

Furthermore, I am directing that each of the alternative programs developed by BLM shall:

• be designed to reflect environmentally sound, fiscally responsible, and economically efficient resource use, development and investment strategies.

• be based on the capability and suitability of the public land resource as determined by you based on BLM's resource management planning process.

• clearly identify the assumptions used and describe environmental impacts, personnel requirements and program costs, and national, regional, and local benefits, and relate those benefits and costs through the use of cost/ benefit, cost effective, or other appropriate analytic techniques.

• clearly state the inventory, planning, protection, rehabilitation, operation and maintenance work that would be achieved under that program alternative.

In addition, I noted in my Message that lands administered by BLM contain areas of great cultural and ecological value. I am therefore directing you to give special attention to protecting areas of BLM-administered lands with nationally significant wildlife, natural, scientific, cultural, or scenic resources. As part of this effort, the Department shall develop by June 1980 a process and criteria for: (i) identifying those nationally significant resources, and (ii) proposing protective measures to provide special protective management for these resources on a continuing basis, commensurate with their national significance.

Please give these assignments your immediate attention.

JIMMY CARTER

Memorandum for the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Interior

In my Environmental Message of August 2, 1979, I discussed the public interest to be served by improved coordination of the natural resources programs of your Departments. In particular, there is an urgent need for genuine cooperation between the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service—the two multiple-use management agencies that administer most of our public lands.

I recognize that much has been accomplished already by the two agencies, working in a spirit of cooperation—including cooperative fire protection efforts which have resulted in significant cost savings, an agreement for more efficient gathering and exchange of renewable resource information, and development of similar procedures for site-specific land use and resource management planning.

To give further impetus to the cooperation and progress achieved thus far, I am directing you to develop within six months a detailed statement of coordination objectives and a process and timetable for achieving them. Among the objectives you should consider are:

• Better coordination of the overall natural resource inventory and assessment process, and related program development and planning processes used by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and other natural resources agencies, including compatible planning assumptions and management policies and consistent levels of decisionmaking responsibilities, for analogous lands and uses;

• Better coordination of field-level operations, including procedures for granting permits for use of Federal lands and the provision of technical assistance to users of Federal lands and to adjacent landholders;

• Boundary adjustments to permit more effective management;

• Pooling of facilities, equipment, personnel, training, and supplies, particularly where demonstrable cost savings can be achieved;

• Joint research and study of both policy issues and resource management problems, techniques and other matters of mutual concern; and

• Coordinated procedures and schedules for involvement of citizens, neighboring landholders, State and local government and other regional and national interests in planning, program development and management processes.

Furthermore, in my Environmental Message, I directed the Secretary of the Interior to establish a program development process for renewable and nonrenewable natural resources managed by the Bureau of Land Management. In that endeavor, both of your Departments should cooperate fully in the preparation of the National Assessment of Renewable Resources called for by the Resources Planning Act, so that the Assessment meets the needs of the Bureau's renewable resources program preparation as well as that of the Forest Service. You should also cooperate to ensure that the processes and programs developed by both agencies are compatible.

Please give me your recommendations within six months on the desirability of legislation to establish the same 5-year program development cycle for both agencies.

Please give these assignments your immediate attention.

JIMMY CARTER