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The Bureau of Land Management Programmatic
Agreement
Introduction
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Programmatic
Agreement (PA) dates to 1997. In light of the 2004 changes to
the regulations governing Section 106 consultation, the Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation (Council) has listed the PA as
one which will need to be revised.
The western state SHPOs met at the annual
NCSHPO meeting in February of 2005 to discuss the performance
of the BLM under the nationwide PA. A round table meeting resulted
in a wide variety of comments. At that time a NCSHPO task force
was created to determine what, if any, changes were needed to
the BLM PA.
The purpose of the BLM PA Task Force is
to determine whether there are problems with the existing nationwide
agreement between the NCSHPO, BLM and the Council, and suggest
solutions. Second, because the Council has targeted the BLM PA
for revision sometime in the future, the recommendations/solutions
of the NCSHPO can be used in this revision process.
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Update on the
Revision of the Programmatic Agreement
In May of 2005, Kak Slick, the New Mexico
SHPO stepped down as chair of the task force and Alice Baldrica,
the Nevada Deputy SHPO agreed to replace her. A questionnaire
was formulated based on BLM commitments within the nationwide
PA and emailed to task force members on June 14, 2005 to determine:
- Whether or not BLM is keeping its commitments;
- Problem areas; and
- Potential solutions.
Click here
for the results of the questionnaire.
On August 31, 2005 the southwestern SHPOs
met in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alice Baldrica presented the results
of the questionnaire and asked for recommendations to take to
the NCSHPO Board of Directors. She also solicited comments by
email from NCSHPO Task Force members unable to attend the meeting
in Las Vegas. The task force requested that the results of the
questionnaire be forwarded to the NCSHPO Board of Directors and
ask the Board to:
- Accept the report recommendations to
amend but not terminate the nationwide PA with BLM;
- Post all state protocols on the NCSHPO
website so that states could use other states’ solutions
to modify their own protocols;
- Request SHPOs to confer with their counterparts
at the BLM to initiate changes that can be made now in the protocols;
- Approve and send a letter
to the Council requesting that the BLM PA be moved to the
top of the list for amending as soon as possible;
- In the same letter, request that the
Council create a BLM liaison position at the Council, in the
BLM Denver Office, for dealing with BLM issues similar to several
other federal agency liaisons currently at the Council in Washington
DC; and
- Acknowledge that tribes and the National
Trust for Historic Preservation have indicated a need to revise
the BLM PA to comport with the 1992 amendments to the National
Historic Preservation Act. Given tribal interests in government-to-government
consultation, the NCSHPO as a State-based organization believes
that the Council should take the lead in this area. Acting in
a supporting role, SHPOs and the NCSHPO endorse the importance
of tribal consultation.
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For More
Information
Questions on this effort should be addressed
to Alice Baldrica, Nevada Deputy SHPO at ambaldri@clan.lib.nv.us.
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