Acquisition Management

What this funds

The 2027 budget request for Acquisition Management is $8,527,000 and 30 FTE, no change from the The Acquisition Management Program allows BLM to execute the necessary tasks to acquire land through the LWCF. This includes title research and title corrections, appraisal, appraisal review, due diligence, resource programs, and coordination with local governments and stakeholders. Processing costs typically vary by project, depending on the complexity of title searches and appraisals, boundary surveys, the number of parcels contained in each purchase, costs associated with the purchase of Bureau of Land Management 2027 Budget Justification 2 Pioneer to Soldier Mountains Recreation Area ID 2,000,000 (1) Bureau line item funding amounts are Net Budget Authority, the amount available to execute after sequester and pop-up adjustments. All mandatory LWCF funding is subject to a sequestration reduction of -5.7% across all programs. Bureau of Land Management 2027 Budget Justification Project / Unit: Pioneer to Soldier Mountain Recreation Area Property is located approximately one mile northeast of the town of Bellevue, Idaho. Remaining to be Acquired 0 $0 The Pioneer to Soldier Mountains Recreation Area in Idaho was established to conserve key wildlife habitat and expand recreation across a connected landscape spanning the Pioneer Mountains, Soldier Mountains, and Wood River Valley. The Area includes sagebrush-steppe, forested terrain, and perennial streams, as well as the Silver Creek watershed, a globally recognized spring-fed ecosystem supporting high-value fish, wildlife, and recreation. Local communities and partners have supported these efforts through public processes, a county conservation levy, and private land protections exceeding 50,000 acres, strengthening habitat connectivity across public and private lands. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has identified priority land acquisitions to improve access and habitat connectivity, including parcels identified in the Dingell Act Priority Access List and the 2021 Wood River Valley Recreation and Access Plan. These areas offering expanded opportunities for hunting, angling, and other recreation. Acquisition of the City of Bellevue's Strahorn Parcel would secure legal access to 61 acres of new public land and improve access to approximately 1,400 acres of adjacent BLM lands in Blaine County, addressing increased recreational demand. Located in Slaughterhouse Canyon, a Dingell Act priority area, the parcel would replace informal access across private land with permanent, managed public access and expand use on the canyon's southern side. Recent trail construction nearby (2023-2024) creates opportunities to develop loop and connector trails linking Bellevue, Hailey, and surrounding backcountry areas. These connections, identified in the 2021 Recreation and Access Plan, support tourism and provide early-season access when higher-elevation trails remain closed. Acquisition would also protect riparian areas and wildlife habitat while advancing ongoing conservation efforts led by the BLM and partners since 2010, including over 95,000 acres conserved and stream restoration following the Sharps Fire. Incorporating the parcel into public ownership ensures coordinated, long-term management of its Bureau of Land Management 2027 Budget Justification Wood River Land Trust assisting the BLM with the acquisition. Letters of support were received from Blaine County Commissioners, City of Bellevue, Blaine County Recreation District, Wood River Trails Coalition, Senator Ron Taylor (Idaho State Senate), and the Nature Conservancy. Conduct natural and cultural resource inventories; construct/improve facilities to make property universally signage; prepare a management; prepare maps and brochures; remove buildings, known hazards and/or restore resources; monitor for compliance, trespass, overuse, hazards, etc.; treat noxious and/or invasive Bureau of Land Management 2027 Budget Justification The proposed acquisition is located approximately 20 miles east of Missoula, Montana, in The Blackfoot River Watershed project are former industrial timberlands that helped to build the economies of Western Montana for the last 100 years. By continuing the ongoing active management of these forests, this acquisition will continue to provide economic benefits to local communities in the wood products industry. Active forest management is creating healthy forests and reducing wildfire risk in the wildland urban interface. The private industrial timberland owners all had an "open lands" policy for recreational access; thus, generations of the public have enjoyed these lands as if they were public lands. The proposed acquisition ensures legal public access for recreational use and enjoyment ensuring present and future generations can continue to access these lands for hunting, fishing, and camping. The acquisition is located on ceded lands of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), and along an important travel route that many Tribes in Western Montana and Idaho/Eastern Washington used. It is two miles south of the South Fork Jocko Tribal Primitive area on the CSKT reservation and contains culturally important areas to the CSKT. BLM and TNC have been working with CSKT to reconnect to some of these areas that they were not able to access under private ownership. Additionally, through BLM's multiple use mandate, the proposed acquisition includes managing important resource and resource use values such as wildlife habitat for big game and other species and ensuring proper watershed function for aquatic species. The Blackfoot River Watershed project is a multi-phase acquisition opportunity to increase recreation opportunities, practice active forest management, and protect natural resources. The BLM is working on acquiring the last phase of project, which is the Gold and Twin Creek project, approximately 17,000 acres. In 2024, the BLM closed on the Upper

Extracted from Bureau of Land Management, p. 134. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

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