Lakeview Resource Management Plan

Jim Davis

How would you manage a few million acres of public lands in Oregon’s high desert?

You will have a critical opportunity to answer that question when the Bureau of Land Management seeks public input on its Lakeview Resource Management Plan Amendment. This process will lay the foundation for how 3.2 million acres in the Greater Hart-Sheldon — including beloved places such as Beatys Butte, Abert Rim, and the High Lakes plateau — will be managed for decades to come.

voices

Durlin Hicock, Alice Elshoff Award winner

Durlin Hicock, Alice Elshoff Award winner

“Protecting public land is part of my spiritual being. It’s central to my identity to be in wilderness and to see it protected.” Durlin is proud to protect public lands for future generations, saying, “The highlight of my childhood was our family’s weekend outdoor trips. I look forward to my grandchildren having similar experiences outside in their lifetimes, and it wouldn’t be possible without ONDA.”

fact

What defines Oregon’s high desert?

What defines Oregon’s high desert?

Bounded by the Cascade Mountains to the west and the Blue Mountains to the north, Oregon’s high desert covers approximately 24,000 square miles. Annual rainfall in the high desert varies from 5 to 14 inches. The average elevation is 4,000 feet; at 9,733 feet, the summit of Steens Mountain is the highest point in Oregon’s high desert. The terrain of the high desert was mostly formed by a series of lava flows that occurred between 30 and 10 million years ago.

Sources: The Oregon Encyclopedia; Wikipedia  

fact

Bobcat

Bobcat

Found only in North America, where it is the most common wildcat, the bobcat takes its common name from its stubby, or “bobbed,” tail. The cats range in length from two to four feet and weigh 14 to 29 pounds. Bobcats mainly hunt rabbits and hares, but they will also eat rodents, birds, bats, and even adult deer.

Latin name: Lynx rufus fasciatus

 

What is the Lakeview Resource Management Plan?

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) creates resource management plans to guide their decision-making across entire planning areas, such as a district or field office.

The BLM is developing a new Lakeview Resource Management Plan Amendment in response to more than twenty years of successful advocacy and precedent-setting legal action led by ONDA.

For public lands advocates, providing comments during the resource management planning process is an important opportunity to shape conservation of public lands and resources across entire landscapes. The Lakeview process will offer the chance to help protect greater sage-grouse habitat, determine where off-road vehicles can and cannot travel on public lands, and where and how wildlands will be protected for future generations.

The Lakeview Resource Management Plan Amendment will particularly focus on three main issues: conservation of Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, administration of off-road vehicle use, and management of livestock grazing.

Understand these three issues and you’ll have the information you need to provide substantive, effective comments on the BLM’s plan.