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Re: Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Arne G Carlsten (agc@PINE.CSE.NAU.EDU)
Thu, 15 Dec 1994 21:09:15 -0700
If I recall correctly, it takes an Act of Congress to create a National Park
(or National Monument/Battlefield/what-have-you). The BLM has jurisdiction over
those Interior Department lands that aren't in the NPS. There're a lot of
reasons to favor this: National Parks don't allow many uses of the land, such
as hunting, unregulated (well, relatively unregulated) camping and so forth.
I believe it's also easier to get permits for archaeological work on BLM land,
but I have no first hand knowledge about this. The NPS is required by Federal
law to have a more-or-less museum curator approach to the land; except of course
for all the tourist crap they allow in the big Parks like Grand Canyon NP...
BLM is a lot closer to the US Forest Service in many ways. I think the BLM
versus USFS division is due largely to the bureacratic struggles between the
Interior and Agriculture Departments...
Arne Carlsten
Northern Arizona University
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