§7202 Establishment of the National Landscape Conservation System

Summary

Creates the National Landscape Conservation System inside the Bureau of Land Management to conserve, protect, and restore important lands with special cultural, ecological, and scientific value for people now and in the future. It includes BLM-held places like national monuments, national conservation areas, wilderness study areas, National Trails System scenic or historic trails, parts of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, units of the National Wilderness Preservation System, and other congressionally designated conservation areas. Named examples include the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, the Headwaters Forest Reserve, the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, and public land in the California Desert Conservation Area, plus any other areas Congress adds. The Secretary must manage the system under the laws that already apply to each part and must protect the reasons those places were set aside. Creating the system does not change the laws or proclamations that created or govern those places, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act; the Wilderness Act; the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act; the National Trails System Act; and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. It also does not affect state control of fish and resident wildlife or limit hunting, fishing, trapping, or recreational shooting on BLM lands.