The BLM's management of public lands on the basis of multiple use and sustained yield relies on healthy landscapes and resilient ecosystems. The purpose of this part is to promote the use of conservation to ensure ecosystem resilience and prevent permanent impairment or unnecessary or undue degradation of public lands. This part discusses the use of protection and restoration actions, as well as tools such as watershed condition assessments, land health evaluations, inventory, assessment, and monitoring.

The objectives of this part are to:

(a) Achieve and maintain ecosystem resilience when administering Bureau programs; developing, amending, and revising land use plans; and approving uses on the public lands;

(b) Promote conservation by maintaining, protecting, and restoring ecosystem resilience and intact landscapes, including habitat connectivity and old-growth forests;

(c) Integrate the fundamentals of land health and related standards and guidelines into resource management for all uses and activities on BLM-managed lands;

(d) Incorporate inventory, assessment, and monitoring principles into decision-making and use this information to identify trends and implement adaptive management strategies;

(e) Accelerate restoration and improvement of degraded public lands, air, and waters to properly functioning and desired conditions;

(f) Manage for ecosystems and their components to adapt, absorb, or recover from the effects of disturbances or environmental change through conservation, protection, restoration, or improvement of essential structures, functions, and redundancy of ecological patterns across the landscape;

(g) Provide for healthy lands and waters that support sustainable outdoor recreation experiences for current and future generations;

(h) Prevent permanent impairment or unnecessary or undue degradation of public lands;

(i) Improve engagement and co-stewardship of public lands with Tribal entities and promote the use of Indigenous Knowledge in decision-making; and

(j) Advance environmental justice through restoration and mitigation actions.

These regulations are issued under the authority of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) as amended and section 2002 of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (16 U.S.C. 7202). Implementation of this part is subject to all applicable law.

As used in this part, the term:

(a) Casual use means any short-term, noncommercial activity that does not cause appreciable damage or disturbance to the public lands or their resources or improvements and that is not prohibited by closure of the lands to any such activity.

(b) Conservation means the management of natural resources to promote protection and restoration. Conservation actions are effective at building resilient lands and are designed to reach desired future conditions through protection, restoration, and other types of planning, permitting, and program decision-making.

(c) Disturbance means changes in environmental conditions, either discrete or chronic. Disturbances may be viewed as “characteristic” when ecosystems and/or species have evolved to survive, exploit, and even depend on a disturbance or “uncharacteristic” when attributes of the disturbance (e.g., type, timing, frequency, magnitude, duration) are outside prevailing background conditions. Disturbances may be natural or human-caused.

(d) Ecosystem resilience means the capacity of ecosystems (e.g., old-growth forests and woodlands, sagebrush core areas) to maintain or regain their fundamental composition, structure, and function (including maintaining habitat connectivity and providing ecosystem services) when affected by disturbances such as drought, wildfire, and nonnative invasive species.

(e) Effects means the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts, as defined in 40 CFR 1508.1(g), from a public land use. Effects and impacts as used in these regulations are synonymous.

(f) High-quality information means information that promotes reasoned, evidence-based agency decisions. Information that meets the standards for objectivity, utility, and integrity as set forth in the Department's Information Quality Guidelines 17 qualifies as high-quality information. Indigenous Knowledge qualifies as high-quality information when it is gained by prior, informed consent free of coercion, and generally meets the standards for high-quality information.

(g) Important, scarce, or sensitive resources:

(1) “Important resources” means resources that the BLM has determined to warrant special consideration, consistent with applicable law.

(2) “Scarce resources” means resources that are not plentiful or abundant and may include resources that are experiencing a downward trend in condition.

(3) “Sensitive resources” means resources that are delicate and vulnerable to adverse change, such as resources that lack resilience to changing circumstances.

(h) Indigenous Knowledge means a body of observations, oral and written knowledge, innovations, technologies, practices, and beliefs developed by Indigenous Peoples through interaction and experience with the environment. Indigenous Knowledge is applied to phenomena across biological, physical, social, cultural, and spiritual systems. Indigenous Knowledge can be developed over millennia, continue to develop, and include understanding based on evidence acquired through direct contact with the environment and long-term experiences, as well as extensive observations, lessons, and skills passed from generation to generation. Indigenous Knowledge is developed, held, and stewarded by Indigenous Peoples and is often intrinsic within Indigenous legal traditions, including customary law or traditional governance structures and decision-making processes. Other terms, such as Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Genetic Resources associated with Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Cultural Expression, Tribal Ecological Knowledge, Native Science, Indigenous Applied Science, Indigenous Science, and others, are sometimes used to describe this knowledge system.

(i) In-lieu fee program means a program involving the restoration, establishment, and/or enhancement and protection of resources at specific sites through funds paid to a local or State government agency, non-profit organization that qualifies for tax-exempt status in accordance with Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 501(c)(3), or Tribal organization to satisfy compensatory mitigation requirements for adverse impacts resulting from BLM-authorized public land uses. Collected funds are pooled and expended on projects that provide compensatory mitigation for the same types of resource impacts. Similar to a mitigation bank, an in-lieu fee program sells mitigation credits to permittees whose obligation to provide compensatory mitigation is then transferred to the in-lieu program sponsor.

(j) Intact landscape means a relatively unfragmented landscape free of local conditions that could permanently or significantly disrupt, impair, or degrade the landscape's composition, structure, or function. Intact landscapes are large enough to maintain native biological diversity, including viable populations of wide-ranging species. Intact landscapes provide critical ecosystem services and are resilient to disturbance and environmental change and thus may be prioritized for conservation action. For example, an intact landscape would have minimal fragmentation from roads, fences, and dams; low densities of agricultural, urban, and industrial development; and minimal pollution levels.

(k) Intactness means a measure of the degree to which human influences, which can include invasive species and unnatural wildfire, alter or impair the structure, function, or composition of a landscape. Areas experiencing a natural fire regime can be intact.

(l) Land health means the degree to which the integrity of the soil, water, and ecological processes sustain habitat quality and ecosystem functions.

(m) Landscape means an area that is spatially heterogeneous in at least one factor of interest which may include common management concerns or conditions. The landscape is not defined by the size of the area, but rather by the interacting elements that are relevant and meaningful in a management context. Landscapes may be defined in terms of aquatic conditions, such as watersheds, or terrestrial conditions, such as ecoregions.

(n) Mitigation means:

(1) avoiding the impacts of a proposed action by not taking a certain action or parts of an action;

(2) minimizing impacts by limiting the degree or magnitude of the action and its implementation;

(3) rectifying the impact of the action by repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring the affected environment;

(4) reducing or eliminating the impact over time by preservation and maintenance operations during the life of the action; and

(5) compensating for the impact of the action by replacing or providing substitute resources or environments. In practice, the mitigation sequence is often summarized as avoid, minimize, and compensate. The BLM generally applies mitigation hierarchically: first avoid, then minimize, and then compensate for any residual impacts from proposed actions.

(o) Mitigation bank means a site, or suite of sites, where resources are restored, established, enhanced, or protected for the purpose of providing compensatory mitigation for impacts to the same types of resources from BLM-authorized public land uses. In general, the sponsor of a mitigation bank sells mitigation credits to permittees whose obligation to provide compensatory mitigation is then transferred to the mitigation bank sponsor.

(p) Mitigation fund means an account established by a mitigation fund holder through a written agreement with the BLM. Permittees with compensatory mitigation requirements may deposit funds with the fund holder, when approved to do so by the BLM. Funds are then expended by the fund holder on projects that mitigate for the same types of resources that were impacted as a result of BLM-authorized land uses.

(q) Mitigation strategies means documents that identify, evaluate, and communicate potential mitigation needs and mitigation measures in a geographic area, at relevant scales, in advance of anticipated public land uses.

(r) “Monitoring” means the periodic observation and orderly collection of data to evaluate:

(1) existing conditions;

(2) the effects of management actions; or

(3) the effectiveness of actions taken to meet management objectives.

(s) Permittee means any person or other legal entity that has a valid permit, right-of-way grant, lease, or other BLM land use authorization.

(t) Protection means the act or process of conservation by maintaining the existence of resources while preventing degradation, damage, or destruction. Protection is not synonymous with preservation and allows for active management or other uses consistent with multiple use and sustained yield principles.

(u) Public lands means any surface estate or interests in the surface estate owned by the United States and administered by the Secretary of the Interior through the BLM without regard to how the United States acquired ownership.

(v) Reclamation means, when used in relation to individual project goals and objectives, practices intended to achieve an outcome that reflects the final goal to restore the character and productivity of the land and water. Components of reclamation include, as applicable:

(1) Isolating, controlling, or removing toxic or deleterious substances;

(2) Regrading and reshaping to conform with adjacent landforms, facilitate revegetation, control drainage, and minimize erosion;

(3) Rehabilitating fisheries or wildlife habitat;

(4) Placing growth medium and establishing self-sustaining revegetation;

(5) Removing or stabilizing buildings, structures, or other support facilities;

(6) Plugging drill holes and closing underground workings; and

(7) Providing for post-activity monitoring, maintenance, or treatment.

(w) Restoration means the process or act of conservation by passively or actively assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed to a more natural, native ecological state.

(x) Significant causal factor means a use, activity, or disturbance that prevents an area from achieving or making significant progress toward achieving one or more land health standards. To be a significant factor, a use may be one of several causal factors in contributing to less-than-healthy conditions; it need not be the sole causal factor inhibiting progress toward the standards.

(y) Significant progress means measurable or observable changes in the indicators that demonstrate improved land health. Acceptable levels of change must be realistic in terms of the capability of the resource but must also be as expeditious and effective as practical.

(z) Sustained yield means the achievement and maintenance in perpetuity of a high-level annual or regular periodic output of the various renewable resources of BLM-managed lands consistent with multiple use and without permanent impairment of the productivity of the land. Preventing permanent impairment means that renewable resources are not permanently depleted and that desired future conditions are met for future generations. Ecosystem resilience is essential to the BLM's ability to manage for sustained yield.

(aa) Unnecessary or undue degradation means harm to resources or values that is not necessary to accomplish a use's stated goals or is excessive or disproportionate to the proposed action or an existing disturbance. Unnecessary or undue degradation includes two distinct elements: “Unnecessary degradation” means harm to land resources or values that is not needed to accomplish a use's stated goals. For example, approving a proposed access road causing damage to critical habitat for a plant listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act that could be located without any such impacts and still provide the needed access may result in unnecessary degradation. “Undue degradation” means harm to land resources or values that is excessive or disproportionate to the proposed action or an existing disturbance. For example, approving a proposed access road causing damage to the only remaining critical habitat for a plant listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, even if there is not another location for the road, may result in undue degradation. The statutory obligation to prevent “unnecessary or undue degradation” applies when either unnecessary degradation or undue degradation, and not necessarily both, is implicated.

(bb) Watershed condition assessment means a process for assessing and synthesizing information on the condition of soil, water, habitats, and ecological processes within watersheds relative to the BLM's land health fundamentals. A watershed condition assessment may include assessment of one or more of watershed physical and biological characteristics, landscape intactness, and disturbances.

(a) Except where otherwise provided by law, public lands must be managed under the principles of multiple use and sustained yield.

(b) To ensure multiple use and sustained yield, the BLM's management must conserve the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archeological values; preserve and protect certain public lands in their natural condition (including ecological and environmental values); maintain the productivity of renewable natural resources in perpetuity; and consider the long-term needs of future generations, without permanent impairment of the productivity of the land.

(c) The BLM must conserve renewable natural resources at a level that maintains or improves future resource availability and ecosystem resilience, in a manner consistent with multiple use and sustained yield.

(d) Authorized officers must implement the foregoing principles through:

(1) Conservation as a land use within the multiple use framework, including in decision-making, authorization, and planning processes;

(2) Protection and maintenance of the fundamentals of land health and ecosystem resilience;

(3) Restoration and protection of public lands to support ecosystem resilience, including habitat connectivity and old-growth forests;

(4) Use of the full mitigation hierarchy to address impacts to species, habitats, and ecosystems from land use authorizations; and

(5) Prevention of unnecessary or undue degradation.