< All Press Releases

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) renewed their longstanding partnership with today’s signing of a cooperative agreement that supports both organizations’ work in natural resource management.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is intended to form a framework for cooperation that supports the organizations’ common goals and interests in managing, developing, and protecting federal and private land and water resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner.  

BLM Acting Deputy Director Jamie Connell said, “The BLM values this relationship.  The cooperative spirit and goodwill of the more than 3,000 districts across the nation have allowed us to make great strides.  By renewing this MOU, we acknowledge there is still much left to do, and we recognize we can accomplish so much more together than we could individually.”

"We are very pleased to be renewing our MOU with the Bureau of Land Management," said Earl Garber, president of NACD. "Over the previous years, our close working partnership with BLM has helped open many doors to address important natural resources management issues. The MOU will allow the diverse conservation work underway to continue forward."

Through their partnership, the BLM and NACD have worked collaboratively to address a range of public lands issues, including forestry and range management, invasive species awareness, wildland fire, and wild horses and burros.   The MOU and the ongoing working relationship allows both organizations to identify those issues that pose management challenges and to develop creative solutions jointly that benefit local communities and represent the best interest of the American public.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.

The National Association of Conservation Districts is the non-profit organization that represents the nation's 3,000 conservation districts, their state associations and the 17,000 men and women who serve on their governing boards. For more than 70 years, local conservation districts have worked with cooperating landowners and managers of private working lands to help them plan and apply effective conservation practices.