OCR Text |
Show lished administratively to advise on the administration of Bureau of Land Management lands, has not met since December 1968. Although we recognize that major changes in policy, other than those of an emergency or urgent nature, generally have been deferred until the recommendations of this Commission could be reviewed, there are many aspects of the on-going programs of the Bureau of Land Management that could have been discussed with the National Advisory Board Council if it is to remain a vital element in the administration of the public lands. We see the fundamental problem in the use of advisory boards as being one of a lack of a clearly defined and appropriately limited function. An Executive order,23 issued in 1962, now provides guidelines for the operation of advisory boards and places limits on their functions. This Executive order gives the Federal agencies clear control over the operation of the boards. We believe that Congress should set forth in law a clear expression of congressional intent with respect to the purpose, composition, and operation of citizen boards for public land matters. 23 Exec. Order No. 11007, February 26, 1962, 3 C.F.R. 1959-1963 Comp., p. 573. To be consistent with the broad roles of the public land agencies, we recommend that members of each citizen advisory board be chosen to represent a broad range of interests. One of the chief charges levied against advisory boards is that they tend to be dominated by members representing only one or two limited interests or uses, even though many uses of the land may actually be affected by recommendations of the board. These charges have been aimed mainly at the district grazing advisory boards, whose membership is limited by statute primarily to grazing permittees. The growing recognition that public lands can serve a variety of uses provides a basis for our conclusion that membership on advisory boards should be chosen to represent a range of interests, and that representation should change as interest in, and uses of, the lands change. We believe the appropriate range of representation includes not just the obvious direct interests, such as grazing, recreation, mining, fish and wildlife, and wilderness, but the professor, the laborer, the townsman, the environmentalist and the poet as well. 289 |