By Bureau of Land Management
The podcast currently has 12 episodes available.
Between Elko and Spring Creek, Nevada, a group of residents and recreation enthusiasts from the Elko Trail Systems Initiative (ETSI) is working with BLM's Tuscarora Field Office to create a new non-motorized trail system. The group hopes that it will bring fun and business to local communities. When completed, the non-motorized trail will be open to hikers, horseback riding, and mountain biking, including e-bikes. Today, we visit with Elisabeth Puentes, Tuscarora Field Manager, about the planning efforts for this new trail system.
BLM-Utah's Color Country District received funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to expand its network of recreation trails at Iron Hills near Cedar City, Utah. In this episode, Mike Innes, an Outdoor Recreation Planner in the BLM's Cedar City Field Office, talks about the essential help from partners and volunteers to create a well-constructed mountain biking trail. The Iron Hills National Recreation Trail receives more than 35,000 visitors annually.
Along the Dalton Highway in Alaska, BLM spends its first field season using acoustic bird monitoring to learn more about bank swallows and their nesting habits.
Whitebark pine is a threatened species of conifer that grows primarily in three states and western Canada. Foresters and researchers have been working for years to deal with pests like the mountain pine beetle, and diseases like white pine blister rust. Emily Guiberson (photo, above) has worked on saving and restoring Whitebark pines most of her career in southwest Montana. Now the lead Forester for BLM's Montana/Dakotas State Office, we talk with her about recent investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Chris Holmes from BLM Communications speaks with Ashton Johnston, a program manager who helps the bureau conduct its once-every-two-years public outreach under the Dingell Act. Johnston describes the process of how to explore the map and submit nominations, the criteria that's used to evaluate each suggested location, and what happens when the BLM concludes its examination of each nomination. It's a process that will continue through 2030. So far, the bureau has collected more than 6,600 nominations of public lands to open to recreation...and counting!
In Southern Idaho, BLM has been working with state and federal agencies and private landowners to treat and strengthen sagebrush habitat. In the Boise District, one of the largest projects is the Bruneau-Owyhee Sage-grouse Habitat project (BOSH). One primary purpose of BOSH is to reduce the number of juniper that are crowding out sagebrush and grass ecosystems, which are critical to the health of sage-grouse and other species. Cutting juniper to give the understory shrubs and grasses a chance to grow is one critical step. Another is to conduct prescribed burns. In this episode, we interview Lance Okeson, who has been working for many years on the BOSH project.
In 2018, a Category 5 hurricane blasted through Lathrop Bayou in the Florida Panhandle, knocking down trees and leaving a huge path of destruction. A few years later, specialists on a field trip noted that a very small population of red-cockaded woodpeckers, which are on the Endangered Species List, were alive on the Bayou's small peninsula. In February 2024, BLM and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service specialists conducted a prescribed burn on the peninsula with the intent to rejuvenate the landscape and make it more favorable to the woodpeckers and other wildlife species who live there. In this episode, we interview Bart Kicklighter, State Fire Management Officer for BLM's Eastern States State Office.
BLM manages millions of acres of forested lands in a checkerboard pattern through eighteen counties of western Oregon. Critical to the health of the land are the rivers and streams that snake their way through these mountainous areas. BLM is one of many agencies concerned about providing strong habitat for migrating coho salmon, Chinook, steelhead, and other species. Consequently, BLM works with many partners to maintain and improve watersheds.
In this episode of "On The Ground," we interview Rose Hanrahan, a fish biologist in Medford, Oregon who works in the BLM's Butte Falls Field Office. The Field Office received more than $700,000 from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to improve fish habitat. Hanrahan describes why a river that benefits fish might look very different from a recreational river.
The Bureau of Land Management works with youth through a variety of programs. Those who come to BLM Visitor Centers and at many public events can quickly find educational programs geared toward young people. BLM also contracts with organizations that hire youth between the ages of 16 and 30 to work on specific public land projects aimed at ecological restoration, noxious weed control, public information, and many other programs.
In this episode of "On The Ground: A Bureau of Land Management Podcast," we talk with BLM Specialists putting young people to work. In addition to its regular appropriations from Congress, BLM received an infusion of funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to help train future public land stewards. We'll visit with Maya Fuller, BLM's National Lead for Youth Initiatives funded by IRA about the goals of youth outreach. We'll also talk with BLM specialists in Arizona, Utah and Montana about work planned this summer. And finally, we'll meet a college freshman in Colorado who hopes to make natural resources a future career.
It's an extended edition of "On The Ground!"
Interviews:
ABOVE PHOTO: A construction worker finishes cement work on a mine adit closure. The finished product will allow bats and small creatures through, but keep humans out.
In the southwestern corner of New Mexico, the Bureau of Land Management is closing more than 300 mine features -- adits, shafts and other open spaces. Frequently hidden from view, these sites were abandoned years ago and can be dangerous for humans unfamiliar with the area where they are located. Some of these features also provide a glimpse into the nation's mining history.
Simply closing mines is not a blanket solution. Some of these are home to animal species like the Mexican long-nosed bat -- also called the greater long-nosed bat -- a small species that was listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1988. While the process of closing the mine features has been ongoing since 2016, BLM received funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2022 to restore the abandoned mine lands. For Physical Scientist Chris Teske, this involves improving the bat habitat as well as making the area safer.
The podcast currently has 12 episodes available.
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