by Jerry A. O'Callaghan

Assistant Director, Lands and Minerals

WESTWARD from the 100th meridian that almost

bisects the plains of the two Dakotas, to the tip of the Aleutian Islands that reach outward toward the Asiatic land mass, the Bureau of Land Management administers some 468 million acres. Within these acres are a wide variety of resources-wealth such as never before represented in the heritage of a great people.

These lands have furnished homesites, homesteads, business and industrial sites, recreation and other public purpose tracts, mining locations, oil and gas leases, and millions of acres of grasslands for sheep, cattle and wildlife. Forests on the lands produce timber and many other types of vegetation protect the precious watersheds.

Classifying the Land

In administering these lands BLM attempts to let the nature of the land govern such important decisions as whether to retain the land for long-term management or to release the land for other types of ownership, public and private.

Information governing these decisions comes from land classification, an inventory of the present and

potential values of the land for various purposes. The authority to classify land is relatively new, being granted to the Secretary of the Interior by the Taylor Act of 1934.

Recently BLM has organized its land classification program through a new and more meaningful conceptmaster units divided along topographic and economic boundaries reflecting the different needs of land users.

Master unit classifications involve three considerations. Topography, land use and tenure patterns, and public values each receive full recognition. In many arid areas the topography, presence or lack of available water, and types of vegetation are vitally important. Likewise, the ways in which the land is used and its relationship to adjacent lands aid in determining the best use. Public values, including recreation, watershed protection, and the needs of local governments are studied before classification.

In some instances a study of all factors indicates that the land would be put to best use through a program of disposition to the public. Isolated tracts and areas needed for urban, suburban and industrial uses often fall into this category.

Land classification is a time-consuming but important activity. Where information on future needs is lacking, and where circumstances do not require an immediate decision, plans are tailored accordingly. As the inventory progresses, however, we are gaining an impressive picture of the natural resources of our public lands.