CHAPTER 2 FEDERAL LAND USE PLANNING—CURRENT AUTHORITIES AND PROGRAMS.
| Jurisdiction | United States |
(Nov 1979)
FEDERAL LAND USE PLANNING—CURRENT AUTHORITIES AND PROGRAMS.
Vice President, National Coal Association
Washington, D.C.
OVERVIEW
Of all areas of recent rapid federal regulatory growth, few are as significant as the expansion and rate of expansion in federal land use planning. Since the creation of the Public Land Law Review Commission in 19641 and the submission of its final report in 1970, the question of management of the federal lands has been of major importance, to managers and users alike.2
Several studies undertaken for the PLLRC focus on the issue of land use planning3 and the concept of multiple use as reflected in federal public land laws.4 The final report of the Commission found a need for "positive statutory direction and strengthening for 'multiple use' management," and recommended provision of a "dominant use" zoning system.5
The importance of federal land management policy as an environmental tool was also highlighted and brought to
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major attention in the early 1970s.6 Public lands dedicated to single purpose use, such as the National Park System, the National Wilderness Preservation System and the National Wildlife Refuge System were sharply distinguished from federal lands under management for multiple use purposes. The Forest Service Organic Administration Act of 18977 is generally regarded as having created the concept of multiple use, later to be specifically adopted by the Congress in the Multiple-Use and Sustained-Yield Act of 1960.8
Today, nearly 15 years after the submission of the PLLRC final report, the "effective land use planning" described by that report as "essential to rational programs for the use and development of the public lands and their resources"9 has mushroomed into a complex and interrelated mechanism of statutory and administrative procedures and requirements that amounts to absolute control over public lands and activities to develop their resources.
It would be virtually impossible in a single paper to review all public land management programs. A report recently submitted to the President's Interagency Task Force on Environmental Data and Monitoring Programs by the Council on Environmental Quality and the Resource and Land Investigations Program (RALI) of the U.S. Geological
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Survey10 lists more than thirty separate statutes which directly or indirectly impact land use.
This paper will review the major existing and proposed federal authorities and programs to control public land use. It will discuss the statutory and current administrative outlines of each program, and the probable impacts of each.
These include:
I. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA),11 which imposes land use planning and management responsibilities upon the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the Department of the Interior, and regulations thereunder.
II. The Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1976 (CLAA),12 which imposes requirements for land use plans upon federal coal leasing activity, and the Federal Coal Management Program adopted by the Department in June, 197913 as a constituent element of its planning procedures under FLPMA.14
III. The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974, as amended by the National Forest Management Act of 1976,15 which imposes planning and management responsibilities in significantly greater detail upon the U.S. Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and regulations thereunder.
In addition to the above statutory requirements, several major administrative actions have significant land use planning consequences. These include the wilderness studies
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and interim management guidelines of the BLM to implement Sections 201 and 603 of FLPMA16 and the Roadless Area Review and Evaluation Studies (RARE I, II) of the Forest Service.17 In each case, through the application of management guidelines, interim decisions on land use availability and planning are made which have immediate effects on proposed uses.
I. FEDERAL LAND POLICY AND MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1976.
The BLM administers in excess of 470 million acres of public land, more than 61 percent of all federal lands.18 Initially known as the General Land Office and the Grazing Service, the BLM had been established as a dominant use agency for the administration of unappropriated public lands by the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934.19
The Classification and Multiple Use Act of 196420 created a temporary multiple use mandate, which expired in 1970.21
The recommendations of the PLLRC finally reached fruition with the enactment of FLPMA. Section 102 declares a federal policy to adopt land use planning procedures, which include periodic and systematic inventories and projections of present and future uses.22 Land management is required to be "on the basis of multiple use and sustained yield"23 so as to protect environmental values24 while recognizing
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the nation's "need for domestic sources of minerals, food, timber and fiber."25
The term "multiple use" is defined as management of lands and resource values so that they are utilized
in the combination that will best meet the present and future needs of the American people; making the most judicious use of the land for some or all of these resources or related services ... the use of some land for less than all of the resources; a combination of balanced and diverse resources uses that takes into account the long-term needs of future generations for renewable and non-renewable resources, including, but not limited to recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific and historical values.26
Finally, FLPMA mandates "regulations and plans for the protection of public land areas of critical environmental concern,"27 a term defined as areas
where special management attention is required (when such areas are developed or used or where no development is required) to protect and prevent irreparable damage to important historic, cultural, or scenic values, fish and wildlife resources, or other natural systems or processes, or to protect life and safety from natural hazards.28
The mechanisms to accomplish these purposes are specific. Under Section 201(a)29 the Secretary is directed to prepare and maintain an inventory of all public lands
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and resources and other values, but the preparation and maintenance of such inventory "shall not, of itself, change or prevent change in the management or use of public lands."30
Section 202 directs the Secretary to
develop, maintain, and when appropriate, revise land use plans which provide by tracts or areas for the use of the public lands.31
The Secretary of Agriculture is directed to coordinate land use plans for lands in the National Forest System.32
The heart of land use planning is set forth in Section 202(c). Planning is required to use and observe the principles of multiple use and sustained yield, and a systematic interdisciplinary approach to integrate considerations of physical, biological, economic and other sciences. It must give priority to the protection of areas of critical environmental concern, rely upon the inventory conducted under Section 201(a), consider present and potential uses and the relative scarcity of the values involved in the land, weigh long and short-term benefits to the public, comply with applicable pollution control laws, and
coordinate the land use inventory, planning, and management activities of or for such lands with the ... programs of other Federal Departments and Agencies and of the States and Local Governments within which the lands are located ... and of or for Indian Tribes.33
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The land use planning process must take into account lands previously classified under prior statutes.34
In addition, the Secretary is expressly authorized to implement land use plans by "management decisions," which are subject to specific limitations. Decisions which exclude "one or more of the principal or major uses" must remain open to reconsideration.35 Any decision that excludes one or more such uses for two or more years with respect to a land area 100,000 acres or more in size must be reported to the Congress. Within 90 legislative days, Congress may by concurrent resolution disapprove such decision.36
The authority of the Secretary to withdraw lands is recodified, and subject to acreage, time and notification to Congress limitations.37 Withdrawals must be accompanied by detailed explanations to the Congress concerning the scope, duration, need, mineral and other resource values and uses which might otherwise be made of the lands involved.38
Land Use Planning Regulations — Proposed.
Under the Taylor Grazing Act of 193439 and the Classification and Multiple Use Act of 196440 the BLM developed and implemented its land use planning process,41 incorporated into the BLM Manual Section 1601 et seq. Under this planning system, a Unit Resource Analysis (URA) was prepared for BLM
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planning units. This described the resources, the environment, and the opportunities for development of values in a unit.42
A three stage planning process would then be employed, to develop a Management Framework Plan (MFP) for the area. These stages would involve activity recommendations by resource specialists concerning most efficient useage of the resources involved, evaluation of individual activity recommendations for the various resources based upon multiple use considerations and the resolving of potential conflicts, and finally public review and comment upon the recommendations thus developed.43
By 1978, approximately 80 percent of the federal lands administered by BLM outside of Alaska were covered by MFPs, in various stages of completion. Environmental impact statements were in the process of being developed to cover...
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