Blm Says Its Lands Deserve Some Respect

Fri., Dec. 29, 2000

From Staff

The federal Bureau of Land Management wants a little name recognition for its work supervising what may be the largest patchwork of public lands in the nation.

Nearly 1,000 current and former BLM managers have asked President Clinton to give the 264 million acres overseen by the agency the same high profile as national forests, national wildlife refuges and national parks, by naming them “national public lands.”

“When you walk into a national forest, you know you’re there,” said William Leavell of Canby, a former BLM director for Oregon and Washington. “Why shouldn’t it be the same on BLM lands? They deserve to be recognized, too.”

Leavell is vice president of the Public Land Foundation, the group of BLM workers and retirees who this month urged Clinton to formally designate BLM acreage as a “National Public Land System” or another “appropriate name which reflects the importance of these lands to the nation.”

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