Did you know? The BLM manages public lands and their resources for 10,000 surface and 39 million subsurface acres in the 31 states east of land bordering the Mississippi River. The BLM Eastern States Office manages sites that provide access to water recreation from the beaches of the northern Gulf Coast to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River, and further north to numerous public islands in rivers and lakes in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Find out more info about some amazing BLM-managed biking, hiking, and horseback riding trail systems east of the Mississippi: https://www.blm.gov/programs/recreation/recreation-activities/eastern-states
Eastern States 100 was such an awesome experience. I had the time of my life out there, spending almost 32 hours on that course and loving every second of it. If I could use two words to define the day I’d come up with gratitude and joy. So grateful for all the people I had out there helping me and sharing in the joy of what that meant. It takes a village, y’all.
During week two of National Recreation Month, take a hike in the vast wilderness. Did you know that this year is the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System? Perfect time for a visit! Find your next #trail adventure at blm.gov/visit, and check out some of our picks below!
Before heading out, be sure to pack sun protection, plenty of water and sunscreen. Summer temperatures could reach over 100 degrees Farenheit, so consume at least 1 gallon (4 liters) of water when you’re out in the heat. If possible try to get outside earlier in the day to avoid the hottest time of the day.
Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area, Virginia
The Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area offers 13.4 miles of hiking trails, 7 miles of horseback riding trails and 6.6 miles of mountain biking trails. It is the site of 2 fishing ponds, (one of which is universally accessible), 800 acres of forest and meadows, environmental education programs, equestrian facilities, geocaching, and bird watching.
This landscape mosaic contains a variety of terrains and vegetation types. These include gently sloping open meadows, mature hardwood forests along steep slopes and floodplains, and riparian areas, freshwater ponds and streams. Red and white oak, beech, sweet gum, Virginia pine, and persimmon, which are common sights in mid-Atlantic woodlands, appear throughout the forests at Meadowood. The ponds, streams and riparian areas at Meadowood host a wide variety of insects, fish and other wildlife.
Humbug Spires Wilderness Study Area, Montana
This 11,175-acre roadless area is located 26 miles south of Butte. Impressive granite outcroppings, part of the Boulder Batholith, rise 300-600 feet and provide outstanding rockclimbing opportunities, most of which range from 5.5 to 5.7 in difficulty, although routes to challenge all levels of ability are present. A three-mile (one way) trail starts at the parking area and winds along the creek through an old-growth forest, and then climbs a ridge and eventually reaches the “Wedge," one of the more prominent spires.
Recreation opportunities include horseback riding, hiking, rock climbing, photography, wildlife viewing, primitive camping and small stream fishing.
Nez Perce National Historic Trail, Idaho
The Nez Perce National Historic Trail passes through Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming. Added to the National Trails System in 1986, the Nez Perce National Historic Trail commemorates the flight of the Nez Perce Indians from their homeland in the Pacific Northwest to Canada to escape capture by the U.S. military. Using an indirect escape route as dictated by terrain and strategy, the Nez Perce passed through four states and traveled over 1,170 miles, from Wallowa Lake, Oregon, to the Bear Paw Battlefield near Chinook, Montana.
Wisconsin, with its 84,000 miles of rivers and 15,000 lakes, is full of places to paddle, float, fish, or just watch and listen. BLM Eastern States manages hundred of islands in Wisconsin. These are the islands that were omitted from the original land survey back in the 1830s and 1840s.
Many of these islands are perfect fishing spots, lunch sites for your next float trip, or even campsites.
Check out the Wisconsin Islands ESRI story map to learn more about these hidden gems.
This week, we invite you to explore many of the hidden gems on your public lands by checking out blm.gov/visit. We want to remind you to always be safe outdoors and make sure you prepare for whatever adventure you choose. Many of the recreation opportunities on BLM-managed public lands are often remote and rugged, offering unparalleled connections to the American outdoors.
BLMers and partners recognized with American Recreation Coalition awards
The national non-profit American Recreation Coalition (ARC) honored two Bureau of Land Management employees from Oregon and Wisconsin for their outstanding efforts to enhance outdoor recreation on federally managed public lands. A Colorado non-profit organization, nominated by the BLM, also won an award.
The Coalition annually recognizes one individual from each recreation-related federal agency with a Legends Award during the Partners Outdoors Conference, corresponding with the kickoff of June as Great Outdoors Month in Washington, D.C. This award is presented to outstanding federal employees whose extraordinary efforts have expanded and enhanced recreational opportunities, and connected people, especially children and the outdoors, through public/private partnerships.
This year’s 2017 Legends Award honors Christopher Dent, BLM Oregon’s Recreation and Rivers Program Lead in Portland, Ore., is recognized for his exceptional leadership of recreation sites and Wild and Scenic rivers. Dent helped to ensure that Congress-designated Wild and Scenic Rivers are protected and enhanced by developing an updated national-level training curriculum to educate field staff about the BLM’s new Wild and Scenic River management planning policies. He enhanced the Rogue River’s visitor services and successfully implemented partnerships to improve public facilities for both river users and permittees resulting in new and improved boat ramps, day use areas, and access for all users. He also improved the Rogue River’s float permit lottery, which resulted in more than 6,600 customers served in the first lottery draw, a new record high. His continuous efforts to partner with youth-serving organizations through skills training keeps future generations engaged with public lands stewardship.
The recipients of the 2017 Beacon Awards are Katherine Kassander, a BLM Natural Resource Specialist in Milwaukee, Wisc., who created the Wisconsin Islands Story Map mobile app that provides visitors with easily accessible information on their smartphones about the recreation opportunities and stewardship needs of more than 500 river and lake islands in Wisconsin. The app, created in partnership with the non-profit organization American Conservation Experience, can be used for trip planning and provides the public with information about BLM volunteer opportunities. It has also increased public awareness of the BLM’s stewardship role in the northeast and has become so popular that the BLM is now creating a similar Story Map for BLM islands in Minnesota.
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, a non-profit group, whose goal is to motivate and enable people to become active stewards of Colorado’s natural resources, won for its work to develop a mobile app called YourCO, which features a BLM badge called “Public Lands Champion.” The Public Lands Champion badge encourages and rewards youth and adults for gaining knowledge and experience about Colorado’s public lands through a range of activities. It also promotes BLM youth initiatives such as the Junior Ranger Program and Junior Explorer booklets. The group, nominated by BLM Colorado, worked with BLM employees in Denver to make this app available to the public.
Today is Manatee Appreciation Day! We’re Celebrating at Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area in Florida
Manatees are frequent visitors to Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area (ONA) shoreline. Sometimes they pass by as they migrate, but occasionally they hang out for a while to feed and relax around the lighthouse. Be sure to look out for these gentle giants when you're out on the water around the ONA!
Located on south Florida’s populous Atlantic coast is a small vestige of natural Florida – the 120 acre Outstanding Natural Area. Although small, the site’s location at the confluence of the Loxahatchee River and Indian River Lagoon – just a ¼ mile from the Atlantic Ocean - provides for a wealth of natural diversity, and has been of strategic importance for human activity for over 5,000 years.
The site is widely known for its namesake lighthouse constructed in 1860, but beyond the light, the site houses unique military history, and evidence of human occupation dating back to 3,000 B.C. More remarkable still, the site encompasses several rare and sensitive natural plant communities, providing habitat for more than 25 special status species.
Visitors to the ONA can tour the historic Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, experience native coastal and upland habitats, watch for manatees, or engage in one of a multitude of the sites’ interpretive and educational programs.
Congress designated the historic lighthouse, and its environs, to be an Outstanding Natural Area on May 8, 2008. Acre-for-acre, the site is among the BLM’s most diverse National Conservation Lands units, and the only unit east of the Mississippi River.
The Bureau of Land Management was officially established in 1946, but it has roots dating back two hundred years, since the foundation of the General Land Office (GLO) on April 25, 1812. The "Gateway to Land Ownership" as it was colloquially dubbed, helped millions of Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries acquire public lands for private and agricultural usage, while simultaneously generating income for the Federal Government.
One of the most important services the BLM provides is as caretaker of the nation's land survey and mineral information records. Since 1946 GLO records and other federal land and mineral records have been maintained by the BLM in a growing serialized casefile system, which today nationwide contains more than two billion documents. Many of these serialized cases have been abstracted and made available online through the Bureau of Land Management Lands and Mineral Records-LR2000 database. The database contains mining claim data and information about federal current and historical leases, permits, land and mineral acquisitions, sales and exchanges, grants, withdrawals and more
Since 1989, BLM Eastern States, located in Springfield, VA, has been protecting and automating the historic land patent documents for the Secretary of the Interior. As the successor agency to the original General Land Office (GLO), BLM Eastern States maintains more than nine million historic land documents survey plats and field notes, homestead patents, military warrants, and railroad grants. These historic documents were among the very first land records to result from the Land Ordinance of 1785, which authorized the transfer of public lands to private individuals from the Federal government. Even today, these records are valuable resources for natural resource agencies, historians, title companies and genealogists.
Many of the documents are now computerized and are accessible via the Internet through the GLO Records website. Over 5 million land patent records from across the United States are now online, and over 4.2 million have been imaged for the 30 public land states.
