On the Ground

The BLM's onshore oil and gas program manages oil and natural gas extraction nationwide, bringing in billions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury from productive wells. But what happens if the wells we manage are no longer productive or maintained? This is the question that the Federal Orphaned Well Program is designed to answer. The program seeks to remediate orphaned wells on Federal Lands, as well as support efforts to do so from State and Tribal entities’ plugging programs.

Orphaned wells are oil and gas wells that no longer have a responsible operator to plug and reclaim the surrounding land. When no responsible party exists, the BLM steps in to secure funding and resources to plug the wells, using funds from operators' bonds and legislative programs to contract and clean up abandoned project sites. In these cases, the BLM works with operators to ensure idle wells are either brought back into production or plugged before they become orphaned.

Left unattended and unplugged, inactive oil and gas wells are environmental hazards that jeopardize public health and safety, as well as pose risks to wildlife. Emissions of noxious gases such as methane threaten to contaminate groundwater; unattended drill sites can lead to flooding and sinkholes. To prevent these dangers, the BLM works with contractors to identify, prioritize and plug orphaned wells.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, oil and gas well plugging is a multi-step process. Before the actual plugging can begin, specialists must inspect and prepare the site, removing any existing infrastructure and production tubing. Teams then pump strong plugging materials with low permeability, such as cement, deep into the inactive wells. The placement of underground plugs at the oil and gas production zones and water aquifers seals off emissions and prevents contamination. Assuming the plug passes necessary pressure tests, and no adjustments are needed, the well is then capped, and reclamation activities begin.

Reclamation aims to restore the project site to match its surrounding environment, bringing it to a condition equal to or closely approximating that which existed before the land was disturbed. Through ecosystem restoration, including restoration of any natural vegetation, hydrology, and wildlife habitats affected by surface disturbances from construction and operating activities at an oil and gas site, the BLM can ensure that any effects of oil and gas development on the land and on other resources and uses are not permanent.

Plugged and reclaimed orphan well sites have the potential to provide healthy wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities and more. The Orphaned Wells program underscores the importance of responsible land stewardship and the BLM's commitment to environmental restoration. The Department’s Orphaned Wells Program Office’s newly released Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2025-2030 communicates how we can serve the orphaned wells community and ensure success in transforming a legacy of environmental pollution into a legacy of environmental stewardship.

The Bureau of Land Management today announced a Restoration Blueprint that outlines the need for additional investment to restore public lands. As the largest land manager in the country, BLM is launching the Restoration Blueprint to build upon past efforts and increase the scale and efficacy of its efforts.

“It’s important for us to show that we have a plan for how we make sure the landscapes that we manage on behalf of the American people are resilient,” said Sharif Branham, assistant director for BLM’s Resources and Planning Directorate. “We're talking about a way to articulate how ‘this is our plan to make sure that these landscapes provide natural benefits for ecosystem services. Not only for the near future but going forward.’”

“Where we see new problems emerge, we want to be positioned to be able to take on those new problems,” Branham said. “We still have multiple use as a responsibility, but here's how we're going to restore and maintain the landscape so that it is possible in the future to have all the options before us for these multiple uses.”

BLM has been actively restoring public lands for most of the last 25 years, when severe wildfires in 1999 and 2000 prompted the Bureau to create a system to gather native seeds and plant materials for wildfire recovery. Recent investments from Congress provided much-needed support to increase the amount of restoration work the BLM delivers.

The Restoration Blueprint outlines five goals to focus future funding and decision-making: 

1. Ensure clean water: Nature-based solutions offer cost-effective approaches, such as projects that mimic wood structures traditionally built by beavers. These efforts connect rivers to their floodplains as nature intended, improving fish habitat and increasing water quality and storage. (Video, Wyoming)
2. Protect communities from wildfire: BLM is committed to protecting communities, reducing wildfire risks, and recovering scorched landscapes. By combining fuels management with community engagement, BLM is aggressively working to minimize the risk and impact of wildfires in changing western landscapes. (Video-Colorado, Audio-Colorado)
3. Promote productive rangelands: Primary threats are invasive non-native species which disrupt the generation of new plant life essential to people and wildlife. By implementing land health standards and working closely with ranchers to adopt sound range management practices—such as resting grazing allotments and timing grazing to favor native plant growth—BLM can help reduce the spread of invasive grasses.  (BLM Blog: Invasive Species and Fire / Partners In The Sage Fire and Invasives website / Video: Outcome Based Grazing, Wyoming)
4. Ensure healthy fish and wildlife habitat: With state and Tribal management agencies, BLM manages habitat for more than 3,000 species, including threatened and endangered species, across some of the nation’s most ecologically diverse and unique landscapes. Habitat restoration efforts by BLM and its partners help maintain the broader ecological integrity of our natural world.  (Blog post/video, Alaska)
5. Deliver exceptional and unique outdoor recreational experiences: As more people seek the outdoors, visitation to public lands is surging. The health and accessibility of these lands is a significant factor that draws visitors. By focusing restoration on improving key recreational experiences, BLM enhances the health of public lands and strengthens the bond of stewardship between the nation and its treasured landscapes.  (Audio-Nevada / Audio-Utah / Video-Arizona)

Currently, approximately 12% of BLM’s budget is allocated across 10 national programs to on-the-ground restoration, excluding administrative and personnel costs.

In 2023, BLM announced an interagency agreement with the Intermountain West Joint Venture to improve sagebrush ecosystems. One year later, we take a look at what IWJV is doing with some of the funding in Montana. We interview two partners who are working on opposite ends of the state to fill skills gaps and encourage conversations with partners. 

The Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona are a bowl-like natural feature that blocks out many electromagnetic signals. This is an ideal environment for the Department of Defense to train intelligence specialists and drone operators. It's also part of a unique ecosystem that includes millions of acres of BLM, Forest Service, State of Arizona, and private lands that all involved would like to see conserved. In this episode of "On The Ground," we visit with BLM Gila District Manager Scott Feldhausen on how he has brought BLM to the conversation with other agencies to accomplish restoration on parts of the three million-acre Sentinel Landscape area. 

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.