Developing Science Plans for the Bureau of Land Management’s National Landscape Conservation System

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) National Landscape Conservation System was established in 2000 to conserve, protect, and restore nationally significant landscapes. As of October 2022, this system encompassed 51 National Monuments, National Conservation Areas, and similar designations spread across approximately 35 million acres of public lands managed by the BLM.  

Science informs and guides the conservation, protection, and restoration of the values for which these national conservation lands were designated (BLM 2017). BLM promotes these lands as sites for scientific research and strategically plans for that science (BLM 2017).  

Accordingly, each National Monument and National Conservation Area managed by the BLM is required to develop a science plan outlining priority management questions and science needs for managing the unit’s resources (BLM 2017).  

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Project Goal and Objectives: 

The US Geological Survey is partnering with the BLM to support science planning in BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System. 

The project has two objectives:  

1. Develop science plans for individual units of BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System. Science plans are intended to identify and prioritize science needs, promote science efforts, and foster the use of that science in management decisions on the unit. 
2. Review and recommend updates to existing BLM guidance for science planning. Recommendations will focus on helping to ensure that science plans are practical and useful for BLM and others with an interest in science and conservation lands.   

Approach: 

USGS and the BLM National Conservation Lands Program are coproducing this effort together with BLM staff from state offices, field offices, National Monuments, and National Conservation Areas.  

Anticipated Benefits: 

Science plans for National Monuments and National Conservation Areas have multiple benefits.  

• The science planning process is an opportunity for agency staff to engage with researchers and conservation partners while proactively identifying science needs and priorities for the unit.  
• Science plans can help guide future science efforts and prioritize project funding to meet identified needs.  
• Science plans can also help agency staff (especially new staff) and others learn more about units, prioritize their work to support key science efforts, and communicate science needs to outside researchers and partners.  

Ultimately science plans can also help researchers better understand the potential applications of their science and provide BLM resource managers with science they can use to best manage each unit’s resources, objects, and values.