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Bureau of Land Management history
Bureau of Land Management company history timeline
Development of federal minerals became increasingly important after World War II. Truman's Reorganization Plan No. It also began overseeing the leasing of mineral estates acquired by the federal government with the passage of the Acquired Minerals Leasing Act in 1947.
In 1948, a new Director, Marion Clawson, brought life to BLM. Clawson laid the foundation for effective public land and resource management.
The protest, led by the Association of O&C counties, forced BLM to abandon Horning's plan in 1948.
BLM, however, did not have foresters to oversee or administer these lands until 1949, when an increase in funding allowed BLM to place foresters in each regional office and a few grazing districts.
In 1949 there were nearly 7,500 Small Tract Act leases.
The Alaska Public Sales Act of 1949 was also used to advantage.
The first competitive sales under the new policy came in 1950.
In 1951, grazing district fees were raised to 12 cents per AUM, with 2 cents of the fee still going for construction of range improvements.
To assist district crews, BLM in 1951 began purchasing 4-wheel-drive high-pressure pumper trucks.
Edwin "Moose" Zaidlicz in 1951. (Edwin Zaidlicz)
Clawson's "area administration" concept, which he introduced in the summer of 1952 and his emphasis on decentralization, land inventory and classification, along with other innovations, pushed BLM toward becoming a viable conservation and multiple resource agency.
He was again unable to get direct funding for this effort, but he was indirectly successful by getting Congress to enact the Halogeton Control Act of 1952.
By 1952 the number of Small Tract Act leases had climbed to more than 25,000, and nearly 300 parcels had been sold for patent.
In 1952, the Bureau, in cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service, launched a program of planned homestead development by identifying suitable lands and marking out farm units for prospective settlers.
The Republican Party Platform for the 1952 Presidential election had called for legislation that would better define the rights of public land users and protect those rights against administrative interference.
Marion Clawson was replaced in May 1953 by Edward Woozley.
By 1953, 600 sites had been sold and nearly 2,500 tracts were under lease.
Our classification and investigation program in the same period will show a gain of 35 percent over the 23,306 cases closed in 1953.
In 1953, a new record was set when 626 million board feet of timber was cut on O & C lands.
In fiscal year 1953, more than 40,000 applications were filed and, the following year, entries increased by more than 50 percent.
In 1954, the law was amended to include the sale or lease of parcels to corporations, associations, and state and local governments, as well as individuals.
In 1955 the first discovery off Louisiana produced 595 barrels a day.
The Multiple Surface Use Act of 1955 restricted surface use rights on unpatented mining claims.
Drought conditions in many parts of the West in 1957 delayed institution of the new grazing formula for another year.
After the 1957 fire season, BLM worked hard to upgrade its Alaska fire program.
Desert Land Law cases went from 1,300 in 1957 to nearly 4,000 the following year.
Alaska's first discovery, however, did not come until 1957 at Swanson River on the Kenai Peninsula.
By 1958, BLM had improved 47 sites and had identified 69 more projects.
In their first year of operation in 1959, BLM's 15 smokejumpers made 109 successful jumps, completely extinguishing 11 major fires.
Alaska officials began their selection of lands in 1959 and, by the next year, had selected nearly 6.5 million acres.
In 1959, BLM resumed leasing off the Florida coast.
The method was employed in Alaska with much success and, by 1960, more than 284 million acres had been placed on protracted diagrams.
To ensure everyone would get a fair and equal chance to know about and obtain these leases, BLM in 1960 instituted a simultaneous filing system.
The Public Works Acceleration Act of 1962 provided federal assistance to areas hard hit by recession and gave the Bureau its first major recreation funding, mainly for campgrounds and picnic sites.
In 1965 the agency received its first regular recreation appropriation.
Finally, with help of the Bureau’s headquarter employees in Washington DC, such as associate director George Turcott, Congress passed the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) after a long and hard fight.
On BLM's development of a firefighting organization, see Stephen J. Pyne's comprehensive fire history, Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire (1982).
In 1982, the Reagan Administration created the Minerals Management Service and transferred to it all minerals functions of the Geological Survey.
These field operations are managed out of our two District Offices established in 1983 in Jackson, Mississippi and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In 2018 oil and gas development on Bureau-managed lands supported over 470,000 jobs nationwide and contributed $105 billion to the economy.
Over 308 million tons of coal were produced on federal land in 2018, most of it used for generating electricity.
Republican Senator from Colorado, Cory Gardner, announced on July 15, 2019 that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will reorganize and move its headquarters from Washington DC to Grand Junction, CO. The BLM’s headquarters have been based in Washington DC since the agency’s earliest years.
Dan Elliot and Brady McCombs, “Trump Administration says Moving BLM to the West will Save Money, Improve Decisions,” The Colorado Sun, July 18, 2019, Accessed November 12, 2019, https://coloradosun.com/2019/07/18/blm-west-move-congress-interior-department-reason/
On September 20, 2019, the Bureau announced the new headquarters office will share its building with oil and gas companies such as Chevron, possibly to the advantage of extractive industry and the disadvantage of conservation and recreation interests.
James R. Skillen, The Nation’s Largest Landlord, (Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2019), 20.
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Bureau of Land Management competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parks Canada | 1911 | $510.0M | 4,666 | - |
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 1940 | $5.5B | 5,540 | - |
| USDA | 1862 | $10.0B | 106,000 | - |
| U.S. Department of the Interior | 1849 | $10.0B | 67,026 | - |
| The Wilderness Society | - | $30.1M | 2,016 | - |
| Conservation Lands Foundation | 2007 | $6.6M | 33 | - |
| Ohio Department of Natural Resources | - | $46.0M | 519 | - |
| Natural Resources Conservation Service | 1933 | - | 11,000 | - |
| Wildlife International | - | $5.7M | 100 | - |
| Iowa Department of Natural Resources | - | $16.0M | 1,170 | - |
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