BLM seeks public input on public land access

There’s a new way to nominate parcels of public land for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreational opportunities. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) opened its online portal. The portal uses geospatial technology in order for you to nominate a specific BLM parcel within the 245 million acres overseen by the agency. It’s part of the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act, which was signed into law in 2019 and requires BLM and other formal agencies “gather public input and identify federal lands with no legal public access, or ‘significantly restricted’ public access” in order to “develop a priority list” to improve access through a variety of methods, including purchasing private inholdings, according to Politico.

In 2020, BLM received over 6,000 responses.

“It is clear the American public is passionate about increasing access to public lands. People responded strongly when we asked for their help in identifying places to open,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “This new technology to gather nominations will help us organize what we anticipate will be an equally robust response in 2022.”

You can visit the site or watch this three-minute instructional video on how to use the geospatial portal. The site opened for nominations on Monday and will close on June 30, 2022