National Conservation Lands
Wilderness area State Established BLM area
Agua Tibia California 2009 538 acres ( 218 ha )
Aravaipa Canyon Arizona 1984 19,700 acres ( 8,000 ha )
Argus Range California 1994 65,726 acres ( 26,598 ha )
Arrastra Mountain Arizona 1990 129,800 acres ( 52,500 ha )
Arrow Canyon Nevada 2002 27,530 acres ( 11,140 ha )
Aubrey Peak Arizona 1990 15,440 acres ( 6,250 ha )
Baboquivari Peak Arizona 1990 2,040 acres ( 830 ha )
Beaver Dam Mountains Arizona , Utah 1984 18,667 acres ( 7,554 ha )
Becky Peak Nevada 2006 18,119 acres ( 7,332 ha )
Beauty Mountain California 2009 15,627 acres ( 6,324 ha )
Big Horn Mountains Arizona 1990 21,000 acres ( 8,500 ha )
Big Maria Mountains California 1994 45,384 acres ( 18,366 ha )
Big Rocks Nevada 2004 12,930 acres ( 5,230 ha )
Bigelow Cholla Garden California 1994 14,645 acres ( 5,927 ha )
Big Jacks Creek Idaho 2009 52,926 acres ( 21,418 ha )
Bighorn Mountain California 1994 26,542 acres ( 10,741 ha )
Bisti/De-Na-Zin New Mexico 1984 38,305 acres ( 15,501 ha )
Black Mountain California 1994 20,548 acres ( 8,315 ha )
Black Ridge Utah 2009 13,108 acres ( 5,305 ha )
Black Ridge Canyons Colorado , Utah 2000 75,418 acres ( 30,521 ha )
List of National Conservation Lands areas -- BLM wilderness areas
See also : National Wilderness Preservation System These 221 sites , total 8,736,691 acres ( 3,535,613 ha ) , excludes wilderness associated with the U.S. Forest Service , National Park Service and other agencies [ 6 ]
National Conservation Lands, formally known as the National Landscape Conservation System, is a 35-million-acre (140,000 km2) collection of lands in 873 federally recognized areas considered to be the crown jewels of the American West. These lands represent 10% of the 258 million acres (1,040,000 km2) managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM is the largest federal public land manager and is responsible for over 40% of all the federal public land in the nation. The other major federal public land managers include the US Forest Service (USFS), National Park Service (NPS), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Over the years, the Bureau of Land Management has had to adjust its approach to public land management to fit the changing needs of the nation. The BLM historically has managed lands under its jurisdiction for extractive uses, such as mining, logging, grazing, and oil and gas production. In 1983, Congress acknowledged the value of watersheds, wildlife habitat, recreation, scenery, scientific exploration and other non-extractive uses with the designation of the first BLM-managed wilderness area - the Bear Trap Canyon unit of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness in Montana. In 1996, President Clinton underscored non-extractive priorities on BLM lands when he established the first national monument to be administered by the BLM - the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. With this and several similar designations, a new focus emerged that would become part of how the agency looks at the land it manages: the protection of special areas where conservation and restoration of the landscape and its biological or cultural resources is the overriding objective. The Bureau of Land Management's National Landscape Conservation System, better known as the National Conservation Lands, was created in 2000 with the mission to conserve, protect, and restore these nationally significant landscapes that have outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values for the benefit of current and future generations. There are ten different federal conservation designations for the units that make up the National Conservation Lands: