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Show BLM Observes 25th BirtMcay This Week Throughout Nation Thnv will ho 2,") cundles on liui-oail of I.:md Managements Man-agements birthday oake b'i'iday. IU.M w;is created Inly HI, iui by nnvKor of the Coneral Land Office and the Grazi'iig Service i'H'o that time it has' functioned under leadership leader-ship of five presidents of the United St.'tes and seven sev-en secretaries of Interior. Today il administers about I"1 million acres, mostly in 11 western states (including (in-cluding Alaska). In Utah BLM administers adminis-ters about 21 million acres, ac-res, or 43 per cent of the state's total land area. This is nearly three nvl- I'.on acres less than BLM adnyaiisitered j Utah 25 years ao, according to Robert 1). Nielsen, ' BLM state director for Utah. Those three million acres have been transferred into private, stale and loval government go-vernment ownership or placed under administration administra-tion of some other federal agency. From BLM-ndministered lands in Utah receipts in fiscal year 1971 totaled more than $10 million, of which ?3,109,S33 was paid to the state treasury. This was about 20 times the amounts of a quarter century cen-tury ago when BLM was organized; receipts in 19-16 totaled less than half a million dollars and $111,-008 $111,-008 was paid to the stale treasury. Mineral production from BLM lands in Utah increased in-creased greatly between 1910 and 1971, except for coal production which is about the same now as it was 25 years ago. Fetrol-oum Fetrol-oum production from public pub-lic lands has increased from 13.061 barrels in 1946 to 11.200,470 barrels in 1970 and natural gas production in the same period increased in-creased from 4,293,23? thousand cubic feet to 25.022.19G thousand cubic feet. Increased minerals activity ac-tivity also is reflected i:i number of leases and permits per-mits issued by BLM which are outstanding. In 194(3 there were 17 mineral permits per-mits and 307 leases in force, covering nearly .300 thousand acres of the state. In 1971 there were 85 permits and 15,101 leases lea-ses on more than 10 mi'-lion mi'-lion acres in Utah. Of ths latter leases M.SIG were for oil and j;,-is, 196 for coal and 59 for ot her mi -erals. Not all activity en IU.M administered lands m Utah has increased during the 25 years, Mr. Nielsen noted, lie mentioned Unit homesteading was an example. ex-ample. All land suitable Tor homesleading, he said, has been acquired by individuals in-dividuals over the past century and lands sti'l administered ad-ministered by BLM do not meet requirement for home-steading. home-steading. In the year of BLM's organization then were patents issued for nine homesteads arid one ilrscit laud entry. There have been no new homestead home-stead or desert land entries in Utah since 1967, the BLM slate director said Although numbers of domestic livestock gra.big BLM lands in Utah have had to be reduced in a eo. operative proeram between stockmen and BLM the result re-sult has been .slab.ili.a.tion and, in some cases, ever improvement, in range forage. for-age. In Utah 3,898 operators operat-ors grazed 203,971 ca.ll.lo and horses and 1,778,270 sheep and goats on public, domain in 1946. They were issued permits for 2,455,-807 2,455,-807 animal unit months ot 'grazing. (An rmimal unit month is equivalent to forage for-age one cow or five sheep will eat in a month). 'I'h is past, year 150,897 cattle cat-tle and horses and 851,019 sheep and goals were grazed graz-ed by 2,225 stockmen with permiUs for 1,278,470 AL'M's. The long history of overstocking the range with attendant deterioration deteriora-tion of forage has been, controlled by management agreements negotiated with stockmen to improve range for livestock grazing, wildlife wild-life habitat, watershed protection pro-tection and other values, Mr. Nielsen said. One of the more signifi cant increases in use of BLM administered land'; has been in recreation. A more affluent society with more leisure time resulted in many kinds of recreational recrea-tional activities almost un- known 25 years ago. To accommodate ac-commodate this demand BLM became involved, as-much as-much as funds allow, in recreation site developments, develop-ments, visitor protection, regulation of undesirable activities, and interpretive programs. ! Another major change in emphasis since BLM was organized is concern in recent years about the environment, Mr. Nielsen pointed out. BLM became actively involved in the envronmental movement several years ago with its nationwide Johnny Horizon Horiz-on program, which now is being sponsored by the entire en-tire Departmet of Interior. The rn ssage of the myth ical Johnny Horizon to nil Americans is, "This land is your land." He appeals to them to keep the environment envir-onment clean and to re .sped and care for public lands. As BLM ends its firs' 25 years if has its seventh national director. Burtor W. Hileoek, native of Idaho, Ida-ho, this month became the first BLM career employee to be promoted through the ranks to become director. direc-tor. Ho succeeds Boyd L. Basmussen, former Utahn, who has been named to the staff of Secretary of Interior Rogers C. B. Morton. |
