Abstract

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 [FLPMA] represents a landmark achievement in the management of the public lands of the United States. For the first time in our history, one law provides comprehensive authority and guidelines for the management and protection of the federal lands and their resources administered by the Bureau of Land Management [BLM]. Since BLM manages more federal land than all other federal resource agencies combined, the new policies contained in FLPMA are particularly important.

One of the most significant policies set out in the Act is the strong and pervasive stress on cooperation and consultation by the federal land managers with state and local government officials. This general policy thrust is implemented in the enforcement authority set out in section 303 of FLPMA. This section provides the basic enforcement authority needed by any land management agency including penalties such as fine, imprisonment, and injunctions to prevent persons from violating the Secretary of the Interior's regulations. Similar authority has been available to the National Park Service and the United States Forest Service since 1905. In addition, the Secretary is authorized to cooperate with state and local law enforcement officials. This cooperation includes having state and local officials enforce federal regulations and having the Secretary assist state and local officials by providing funding for state and local enforcement of state and local laws.

Obviously, section 303 is a very important part of FLPMA. It has a number of significant features, some of which will be treated by other participants in this Symposium. This Article will discuss three basic aspects of section 303 in varying degrees of detail. First, the role of federalism in federal land management will be briefly discussed. Second, the various provisions of FLPMA dealing with federalism issues will be outlined. Finally, there will be a more detailed discussion of the federalism aspects of the provisions of subsections (c) and (d) of section 303.

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