Sportsmen Win Big in Finalized BLM Land Management Plan

Today, the Bureau of Land Management finalized its’ land use plan for almost 800,000 acres of public land spanning from the Bennett Hills to the banks of Brownlee Reservoir.

The Four Rivers Resource Management Plan Record of Decision signifies the end of a decade long effort to update the management framework to guide public land management decisions. The RMP will guide BLM’s management decisions on livestock grazing, fire, wildlife habitat, mineral development, and recreation for the next twenty years.

The Four Rivers Resource Management Plan Record of Decision incorporates big wins for sportsmen, including Idaho’s first of its kind Backcountry Conservation Area totaling 120,800 acres in the Bennett Hills- The largest proposed in the plan!

The Bennett Hills, situated just northeast of Mountain Home, are a prized landscape for hunters, both for its’ proximity to the urban center of Boise, Mountain Home, and Twins Falls, and for the highly productive and sought after mule deer and upland bird hunting. The Bennetts provide crucial big game winter range and migratory pathways for six mule deer, elk, and pronghorn herds.

The newly designated Bennett Hills Backcountry Conservation Area.

This BCA designation will conserve large areas of intact and undeveloped lands that provide functional habitat for migratory big game species and provide for high-quality wildlife-dependent recreation, such as hunting and trapping. Big game migrations, critical winter range, and sportsmen’s access are all conserved under this BCA designation.

In addition to the newly designated Bennett Hills BCA, the Four Rivers RMP also guides the BLM’s continued habitat management efforts for Long-Billed Curlew near Emmett and Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse near Midvale.

“Today’s decision wraps up almost a decade of advocacy efforts from the sporting community.” said Brian Brooks, Executive Director of Idaho Wildlife Federation. “IWF cannot do it without you - our partners, our followers, and our supporters - for speaking up and getting engaged. This is a prime example of constant pressure, constantly applied by the sporting community, and the BLM listening.”

IWF thanks the BLM for listening to sportsmen throughout this long and arduous process and incorporating land management decisions that will ensure our state’s iconic fish and wildlife have productive, unfragmented landscapes for decades to come.

Take a look at the final Four Rivers Resource Management Plan here.