tidwell-brief

3. THE COORDINATION PROCESS IS ENACTED BY CONGRESS
IN THE FEDERAL LAND POLICY MANAGEMENT ACT
a. The statute and the legislative history of the statute.
The first Congressional mandate of coordination appeared in the
Federal Land Policy Management Act passed and signed into law in
1976.
Until the early 1970s the policy of the federal government was
that the vast western rangelands would be disposed of through
sale or exchange. Administrations prior to that of Richard
Nixon and Congress considered the ownership and management of
those lands to be temporary. That position was symptomatic of
the Colonial view that the western lands were a burden, a burden
to be shed in order to save money and management time.
The Taylor Grazing Act was enacted to provide temporary
management in a form designed to bring some order to the method
of claiming and grazing the lands. But, the Act made it clear
that the federal government would eventually dispose of those
lands.
When the Nixon administration and the leadership of Congress
agreed that the federal government should retain permanent
ownership of the lands, it became necessary to develop a
comprehensive management protocol. Through the early 70s
Congress worked on that management protocol, considering through
two sessions whether to put the lands under the Forest Service,
or put the lands and the forests under the Bureau of Land
Management. The chess game for management authority continued
for several years until the decision was made to place the
rangelands under the BLM and maintain management of the Forests
and Grasslands under the Forest Service.
As the debate continued, Congress considered many changes to
management of the National Forests and a brand new protocol for
the rangelands. Changes to the Forest acts and consideration of
the contents of FLPMA occurred simultaneously within the
committee structure of the Congress.
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