The Missoula-area Bureau of Land Management office is going to give residents a special opportunity to weigh-in on how nearby public lands are managed. Theodore Roosevelt Conservation-Partnership Western lands Programs Director Joel Webster explains.

"The Missoula BLM field office is a place where the agency is actually applying these principals early, it's called an early-adopter area and there are only three places where this is happening," Webster said. "It's a great opportunity for local citizens and stakeholders who care about public lands management to get involved. Missoula county has come out and formally supported this."

The new management plan, dubbed “BLM’s Planning 2.0” Consists of three steps, starting with an envisioning process where the public gives feedback on how they would like to see their lands managed. After that, the BLM will do an inventory of the lands and what they are used for, including recreation and natural resources like timber. Then, there’s the final reveal.

"Historically, they just sort of dumped the draft management plan out there for the public to react to," Webster said. The final, third step is that they're actually going to do what they call 'preliminary alternatives,' so they are actually going to give the public a look at what they are thinking for that plan, then provide the public with an opportunity to react to that, so that they can make changes before they actually roll the draft out."

The other two early-adopter locations for the new BLM management plan are in eastern Colorado and Northwest California.

More From Newstalk KGVO 1290 AM & 98.3 FM