Several areas in the Colorado Plateau are already protected as part of the nation’s Conservation Lands system. But without the right management, some of their wildness could be lost.
How the Bureau of Land Management manages our National Conservation Lands over the coming years will be just as important as was designating these places for protection in the first place.
Our conservation lands face many challenges: understaffing, underfunding and shifting political priorities. The system’s lands and waters are also threatened by development, vandalism and neglect.
The National Landscape Conservation System includes more than 27 million acres of special wildlands. Below you can use our maps to find out where those lands are.
In 2025, just 15 years from now, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act will have been guiding the agency’s management for 50 years. In that same year, the National Landscape Conservation System will turn 25.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument — a treasure trove of Puebloan artifacts in Colorado, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — the last place mapped in the Lower 48 States, Las Cienegas National Conservation Area — where the history of ranching and protection of grassland bird species come together in Arizona. These are a small sample of the vast landscapes in the National Landscape Conservation System (Conservation Lands).
