Under a plan unveiled Tuesday by the Interior Department, the Bureau of Land Management’s senior management and national programs are pulling out of Washington, D.C., and getting dispersed into Utah, Colorado and other Western states where the majority of the agency’s 245 million acres are located.
While incurring some upfront relocation costs, the bureaucratic overhaul is expected to save $50 million to $100 million over the next 20 years and will make the BLM more accessible to the people who rely on public lands, according to top Interior officials.
“This approach will play an invaluable role in serving the American people more efficiently while also advancing the Bureau of Land Management’s multiple-use mission,” said Interior Secretary David Berhardt, a former oil and gas industry lobbyist, in a statement.