Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the next steps in their Planning 2.0 process. This process seeks to review, and then update, the planning process for deciding how to manage our public lands. Notably, the BLM has committed to increasing the amount and transparency of public and stakeholder input into landscape-level planning.
Upon hearing of this announcement, Western Values Project issued the following statement from our Director, Chris Saeger:
“This is a great step by the BLM to not only update decades-old processes, but also to better involve the public in important decisions about our American public lands. In places like Moab, we’ve already seen just how effective this kind of planning can be for all aspects of the economy, when it’s done right—with input from all involved stakeholders at the local level, and in a transparent manner. With our western way of life so tied to public lands and their many uses, we’re at a critical point in planning for the future—so we applaud BLM for stepping up to the challenge, and embracing the importance of increased public input in landscape-level planning decisions.”