On February 11, 2016, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) announced significant proposed amendments to its land use planning rules as a part of its Planning 2.0 initiative. The stated goals of the proposed rules are to: (1) improve the BLM’s ability to respond to social and environmental change in a timely manner; (2) provide meaningful opportunities for other Federal agencies, State and local governments, Indian tribes, and the public to be involved in the development of BLM resource management plans (“RMPs”); and (3) improve the BLM’s ability to address landscape-scale resource issues and to apply landscape-scale management approaches.

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (“FLPMA”) requires that BLM develop land use plans “which provide by tracts or areas for the use of the public lands.” The BLM has historically prepared RMPs on a field office basis, but FLPMA does not prohibit the preparation of RMPs on larger or smaller areas of the public lands. The proposed rule allows the BLM Director to designate the area that will be covered by an RMP; presumably, those areas will generally be larger than the boundaries of a BLM field office’s jurisdiction so as to accommodate “landscape-scale management approaches.” However, the proposed rule does not establish any standards or guidelines for how the BLM Director will designate an area to be covered by an RMP; it simply states that the Director will “determine” the planning area for the preparation of each RMP.

A new step in the planning process will be the preparation of a “planning assessment.” The planning assessment will be prepared on the planning area so presumably will not be relied upon for the Director’s determination of the planning area. As a practical matter, BLM already prepares a form of planning assessment under the existing rules as it begins the process of preparing a new RMP, but the proposed rule formalizes that information gathering process and requires public involvement.

While the preamble to the proposed rule mentions the need for a more nimble approach to planning that is responsive to a rapidly changing environment and conditions, the expanded public involvement requirements that would be imposed by the rule will make the process anything but nimble. Public involvement, “appropriate to the areas and people involved,” is required (1) in the preparation of the planning assessment (both during the data gathering phase and on the report that documents the planning assessment which is to be made available for public review); (2) in identifying planning issues (the BLM will notify the public and make available for public review the preliminary statement of purpose and need); (3) by making the preliminary alternatives to be analyzed in the environmental impact statement (“EIS”) for the RMP and the preliminary rationale for those alternatives available for public review before the draft RMP and draft EIS are released for comment; (4) by making available for public review, before release of the draft RMP/EIS, the preliminary procedures, assumptions, and indicators that will be used to estimate the effects of implementing each alternative to be analyzed in the draft; (5) at the time the draft RMP is released for public comment; and (6) after the proposed RMP is released by providing for protests of the proposed RMP.

Although the current planning process provides for comments in response to the scoping notice published at the commencement of the EIS on the plan, comments on the draft RMP, and protests, the proposed rule adds at least three more occasions for which public involvement must be solicited. Interestingly, the proposed rule does not contemplate public involvement in the determination of what area will be covered by an RMP. As discussed by Rebecca Watson in her article on Planning 2.0, State and local governments and Indian tribes may be dissatisfied with what they are likely to view as the dilution of their input into the BLM planning process if RMPs cover “landscape” size areas, rather than the area administered by the BLM field office. See, Rebecca W. Watson and Joshua B. Cannon, “Toward Planning 2.0: The New Landscape of BLM Planning,” 93 Denv. U. L. Rev. Online 49, Nov. 2015. Moreover, the Director’s role in determining the area to be covered by an RMP (with that determination requiring no public involvement) creates the risk that the planning process will become more centralized in Washington—a development with which the word “nimble” is rarely associated.

There will be a 60-day comment period on the proposed rules beginning as of the date of publication of the draft rule in the Federal Register. Publication is anticipated by the end of February 2016.

The text of the proposed revisions to BLM planning regulations is available here.