Innovation in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management: Insights from the Integration of Mule Deer Habitat Management and Oil and Gas Leasing

Abstract

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for 256 million acres of public land, mostly across the eleven Western states. The agency has been characterized by close relationships with traditional clientele groups, shifting political support, and contradictory interpretations of vague statutory guidance. This tightly controlled environment has often resisted innovation. However, managers of the public lands are facing an increasingly complex agenda that will require innovation in resolving local conflicts. Emerging problems, like declining wildlife populations, are creating new opportunities for field offices to find innovative solutions. This thesis utilizes information generated from document and literature reviews, case studies, and personal interviews to explore the research question, “What organizational factors appear to promote and constrain innovation in the management of resources at the field office level in the BLM?” The BLM history reveals that the agency is a highly decentralized and inherently political organization, and it suggests that major shifts in BLM organization and policy have most often occurred because of pressure from an organized constituency that pushes for change and defends it politically. This thesis concludes that innovation occurs when staff members recognize that there is a problem that needs attention, feel that there is the political space to take risks in generating new alternatives, and find a diverse and politically-connected constituency that supports change upstream. It also finds that the process by which the agency makes decisions has important implications on bringing innovative ideas to the table, and it finds that the demographic of the BLM employee is changing which is facilitating a shift towards new alternatives for the agency. To foster continued innovation, BLM managers should focus on building the collaborative capacity of their staff and the communities in which they work, focus on engaging diverse stakeholders in the alternative generation process, and be attentive to changing science.