# Resource Management Plan The land use plan required by § 202 of the [[Federal Land Policy and Management Act]] (43 U.S.C. § 1712) for each [[Bureau of Land Management]] planning area. There is no national rule stating what may happen on BLM land; there are roughly 160 Resource Management Plans, and an acre's plan is the document that decides whether it is open to leasing, closed to off-road vehicles, available for grazing, or managed for wilderness characteristics. The Forest Service equivalent is the Forest Plan under the National Forest Management Act. An RMP is developed through scoping, a draft and final environmental impact statement, and public comment. Its two distinctive checks both terminate inside the agency: - **Governor's consistency review** (43 CFR 1610.3-2) — a governor has 60 days to identify inconsistencies with state or local plans; silence is deemed consent. The BLM State Director decides whether to accept the recommendations; the governor may appeal to the BLM Director within 30 days, and the Director's determination is final and published in the *Federal Register*. - **Protest** (43 CFR 1610.5-2) — any person who participated and is adversely affected may protest to the Director within 30 days. The regulation states that "the decision of the Director shall be the final decision of the Department of the Interior." There is no administrative appeal above him. Congress has no role in an RMP at all. The plan is also the **default that resurfaces** when an overlay is removed: BLM's 2026 proposal to revoke the Chaco-area withdrawal would return 336,404 acres to management under the **2003 Farmington Resource Management Plan**. ## See also - [[Federal Land Management Crosswalk]] - [[Bureau of Land Management]] - [[Federal Land Policy and Management Act]] - [[Public Lands Rule]]