1. Wilderness Characteristics Guidance for the BLM
I. Introduction
II. Inventory Procedures
Planning
A. Background to LWCs in Planning
B. Factors to Consider When Protecting LWCs
C. Placing LWCs in the Land Use Planning Process
D. LWCs and Proposed Projects
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Planning – Factors

2. Wilderness Characteristics Guidance for the BLM
Considering lands with wilderness characteristics
in land use planning:
Factors to Consider
In the land use planning process, several factors should be among those used in considering whether, and to what degree, wilderness characteristics will be protected.
(We're just talking about consideration of lands with wilderness characteristics, right? You will protect wilderness characteristics in Wilderness Areas in perpetuity, and in Wilderness Study Areas until Congress determines whether to designate the area as Wilderness or release it to other multiple uses.)
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Planning – Factors

3. Factor #1 Wilderness Characteristics
Review documented inventories
referenced in Land Use Plan
available to the public
OK. Well, first -- and most obviously -- you'll review the documented wilderness characteristics for each area.
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The inventories should be referenced in your land use planning document, and be available to the public.
But beyond that -- what?
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Planning – Factors

4. Factor #2 Manageability
Land status
inholdings?
access?
split estate?
other VERs?
You'll want to look at the area's manageability. Specifically, whether the lands can be effectively managed to protect their wilderness characteristics over the life of the plan, based on present knowledge of the resources, ongoing uses, and valid existing rights in the area. (And don't forget to document!)
This means looking at:
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Land status.
Does the area have state or private inholdings? How many?
What are the potential impacts of providing access?
Split estate? Subsurface rights in an area owned by a party other than the Federal government may limit the BLM’s ability to protect wilderness characteristics on the surface.
What other Valid Existing Rights might be present?
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Planning – Factors

5. Factor #2 Manageability
Land status
External impacts
incompatible activities pervasive & omnipresent?
External impacts.
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Are incompatible activities that can be seen or heard from inside the area pervasive and omnipresent? If so, take this into account. "Pervasive and omnipresent" circumstances are expected to be rare. If you don't understand this concept or why they are expected to be rare, you need to review the Naturalness module in the Inventory portion of this training: module II-D.
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Planning – Factors

6. Factor #2 Manageability
Land status
External impacts
Other laws
additional statutory requirements?
NPRPA
O&C Lands Act
Other laws. Some lands managed by the BLM are subject to specific additional statutory requirements that might affect manageability:
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Laws like the National Petroleum Reserve Production Act or the Oregon and California (O&C) Lands Act).
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Planning – Factors

7. Factor #2 Manageability
Land status
External impacts
Other laws
Boundary modification?
boundary road maintenance buffer?
boundary vary by Alternative?
After a first look, you might consider whether boundary modification of the area would improve manageability.
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For instance, even though your inventory found wilderness characteristics right up to the edge of a road, you might pull the boundary of an area where those characteristics might be protected back enough to facilitate ongoing road maintenance (a boundary adjustment we cannot make in Wilderness Study Areas).
And keep in mind that manageability may vary depending on the planning alternative. (For instance, the protected area boundary may be different in various alternatives.)
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Planning – Factors

8. Factor #3 Other Resource Values & Uses
Lost or degraded if LWC protected
Preserved, recovered, or improved if LWC protected
Along with manageability, you'll also want to look at the other resource values and uses present.
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This means looking at which ones would be lost or degraded if the wilderness characteristics were protected,
and which ones might be preserved, recovered, or improved as a result of protecting wilderness characteristics.
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Planning – Factors

9. Factor #3 Other Resource Values & Uses
Lost or degraded
Preserved, recovered, or improved
presence of other resources
development potential
compatibility with protection
resource availability
economic importance
Boundary modification?
Specifically, you want to consider the following (and document your findings):
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Presence of Other Resources. To what degree are other resources or uses are present in the area with wilderness characteristics?
What is the potential for further development or use of the other resources?
How much would the use or development of each resource be compatible with or conflict with management to protect wilderness characteristics?
To what degree are these other resources or uses are present on other public and private lands outside the area containing wilderness characteristics?
And finally, what is the local, regional, national, or traditional (i.e., Tribal) economic value of various resources on the lands with wilderness characteristics? What is the potential to enhance the economic importance by protecting the lands with wilderness characteristics and its associated values and uses?
And again, you might consider whether boundary modification of the area would improve other resource values and uses.
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Planning – Factors

10. Factor #4 recent Congressional action
WSAs released in legislation
no longer managed under the IMP
still have wilderness characteristics (by definition as a WSA)
immediate Congressional intent:
do not preserve WCs on these areas
circumstances may change
One additional factor you'll want to look at is recent Congressional action.
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Periodically, Congress considers Wilderness Study Areas for Wilderness designation, and in the legislation, may indicate which WSAs, or portions of WSAs, are no longer subject to being managed as Wilderness Study Areas.
By this release, those areas are no longer managed under the non-impairment standard from FLPMA Section 603.
But, since the released area was -- in whole or part -- a WSA, it will still possess wilderness characteristics…
…yet at the moment of release, it is clear Congressional intent that the wilderness characteristics not be preserved on the released lands. The BLM shall take into serious consideration the Congressional action in the BLM’s subsequent land use planning decisions for the released land.
Over time, circumstances may change and the land may have retained wilderness characteristics even without the BLM working to preserve them. At that time -- through the land use planning process -- it may be appropriate to again protect an area with wilderness characteristics. Document the basis for the BLM land use planning decisions regarding the management of the released land.
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Planning – Factors

11. Wilderness Characteristics Guidance for the BLM
Considering lands with wilderness characteristics
in land use planning:
Factors to Consider
Now you know some of the factors to consider in the decision whether to protect lands with wilderness characteristics -- the "what." In the next module, we'll look at the "when" -- the points in the land use planning process where lands with wilderness characteristics should be addressed.
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End of Module IIIB
Planning – Factors