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Glossary

A-Weighted Decibel (dBA): An overall frequency-weighted sound level in decibels that approximates the frequency 

response of the human ear.

Abandoned Mine Lands: An abandoned hard rock mine on or affecting public lands administered by the BLM, at 

which exploration, development, mining, reclamation, maintenance, and inspection of facilities and equipment, and other 

operations ceased as of January 1, 1981 (the effective date of BLM's Surface Management regulations codified at 43 

CFR 3809) with no evidence demonstrating that the miner intends to resume mining. For many abandoned mines, no 

current claimant of record or viable potentially responsible party exists. Abandoned mines generally include a range of 

mining impacts, or features that may pose a threat to water quality, public safety, and/or the environment.

Accelerated Erosion: Soil loss above natural levels resulting directly from human activities. Because of the slow rate 

of soil formation, accelerated erosion can lead to a permanent reduction in plant productivity. 

Acquired Lands: Lands in federal ownership that were obtained by the government through purchase, condemnation, 

gift, or exchange.

Active Preference: That portion of the total grazing preference for which grazing use may be authorized. 

Activity Plan: Site-specific plan which precedes actual development. This is the most detailed level of BLM planning, 

and is also referred to as project level or implementation level planning. 

Actual Use: The amount of animal unit months consumed by livestock based on the numbers of livestock and grazing 

dates submitted by the livestock operator and confirmed by periodic field checks by the BLM. 

Administrative Unit: Field Office, Resource Area, District or State. 

Affected Environment: Natural, physical and human-related environment that is sensitive to changes due to proposed 

actions. 

Air Quality: Refers to standards for various classes of land as designated by the Clean Air Act of 1978. 

Air Quality Standards: Primary standards are designed to protect human health, including sensitive populations, such 

as people with asthma and emphysema, children, and senior citizens. Primary standards were designed for the 

immediate protection of public health, with an adequate margin of safety, regardless of the cost.

Secondary standards are designed to protect public welfare, including soils, water, crops, vegetation, buildings, property, 

animals, wildlife, weather, visibility, and other economic, aesthetic, and ecological values, as well as personal comfort 

and well-being. Secondary standards were established to protect the public from known or anticipated effects of air 

pollution.

Allotment: An area of land where one or more livestock operators graze their livestock. Allotments generally consist of 

BLM lands but may also include other federally managed, state owned, and private lands. An allotment may include one 

or more separate pastures. Livestock numbers and periods of use are specified for each allotment. 

Allotment Categorization: Grazing allotments and rangeland areas used for livestock grazing are assigned to an 

allotment category during resource management planning. Allotment categorization is used to establish priorities for 

distributing available funds and personnel during plan implementation to achieve cost-effective improvement of 

rangeland resources. Categorization is also used to organize allotments into similar groups for purposes of developing 

multiple use prescriptions, analyzing site-specific and cumulative impacts, and determining trade-offs. 

Allotment Management Plan: A written program of livestock grazing management, including supportive measures if 

required, designed to attain specific management goals in a grazing allotment. 
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Allowable Sale Quantity: The maximum quantity of timber that may be sold from the area of suitable land covered by 

the resource management plan for a specified time period specified by the plan. 

Alternative: In an Environmental Impact Statement, one of a number of possible options for responding to the purpose 

and need for action. 

Alluvium: Any sediment deposited by flowing water, as in a river bed, floodplain, or delta. 

Amendment: The process for considering or making changes in the terms, conditions, and decisions of approved 

Resource Management Plans or Management Framework Plans using the prescribed provisions for resource management 

planning appropriate to the proposed action or circumstances. Usually only one or two issues are considered that involve 

only a portion of the planning area. 

Analysis Area: The geographic area defining the scope of analysis for a particular resource. This area may be larger 

than the project area when effects have the potential to extend beyond the boundaries of the proposed action. 

Analysis of Management Situation: A comprehensive documentation of the present conditions of the resources, 

current management guidance, and opportunities for change. 

Animal Unit Month (AUM): A standardized measurement of the amount of forage necessary for the sustenance of one 

cow unit or its equivalent for 1 month; approximately 800 pounds of forage. An AUM is the amount of forage needed to 

sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month.

Annual Sale Quantity (ASQ): The maximum volume of timber that may be sold on a sustained-yield basis from the 

area of suitable land covered by the resource management plan for a time period specified in the plan. This volume is 

usually expressed on an annual basis as the average annual allowable sale quantity.

Appeal: Application for review by a higher court. 

Application for Permit to Drill (APD): Before beginning construction or the drilling of a well, the lessee or operator 

must file an Application for Permit to Drill (APD) with the BLM Great Falls Oil and Gas Field Office. A copy of the 

application is posted in the Great Falls Oil and Gas Field Office, the appropriate field office within the HiLine District, 

and if applicable, in the office of the surface management agency for a minimum of 30 days for review by the public. 

After 30 days, the application can be approved in accordance with (a) lease stipulations, (b) Onshore Oil and Gas Orders, 

and (c) Onshore Oil and Gas regulations (43 CFR Part 3160) if it is administratively and technically complete.

Appropriate Management Response (AMR): This term became obsolete in February 2009 when new interagency 

guidance was developed for implementing Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. The definition was ‘any specific 

action suitable to meet Fire Management Unit (FMU) objectives. Typically, the AMR ranges across a spectrum of 

tactical options (from monitoring to intensive management actions). The AMR is developed by using Fire Management 

Unit strategies and objectives identified in the Fire Management Plan.’

Appropriation: Public lands covered by an entry, settlement, claim, location, withdrawal, or reservation that sets the 

land apart for some particular use or disposal. 

Aquatic: Living or growing in or on the water. 

Aquifer: A water-bearing bed or layer of permeable rock, sand, or gravel capable of yielding large amounts of water. 

Archaeological Resource/Remains: A term with legal definition and application, meaning any material remains of 

human life or activities that are at least 100 years of age, and that are of archaeological interest. 

Area Designations:

 Open: An area where all types of vehicle use is permitted at all times, anywhere in the area subject to the 

operating regulations and vehicle standards set forth in 43 CFR 8341 and 8342.
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 Limited: An area restricted at certain times, in certain areas, and/or to certain vehicular use. These restrictions 

may be of any type, but can generally be accommodated within the following type of categories: Numbers of 

vehicles; types of vehicles; time or season of vehicle use; permitted or licensed use only; use on existing roads, 

primitive roads and trails; use on designated roads and trails; and other restrictions.

 Closed: An area where motorized vehicle use off road is prohibited. Use of off-road vehicles in closed areas 

may be allowed for certain reasons; however, such use shall be made only with the approval of the authorized 

officer.

Area of Critical Environment Concern: Areas within the public lands where special management attention is required 

to: (1) protect and prevent irreparable damage to important historic, cultural, or scenic values, fish and wildlife resources, 

or other natural systems or processes, or (2) protect life and safety from natural hazards. 

Arid: A condition of a region where precipitation is insufficient to support any but drought-adapted vegetation. 

Armoring: Placement of protective material for the primary purpose of reducing sediment into streams or other water 

bodies. 

Aspect: (1) the visual first impression of vegetation at a particular time or seen from a specific point. (2) The 

predominant direction of the slope of the land. 

Assessment: The act of evaluating and interpreting data and information for a defined purpose. 

Authorized Officer: The federal employee who has the delegated authority to make a specific decision. 

Authorized Use: Uses of public land that may be authorized include agriculture development, residential use (under 

certain conditions), business, industrial, and commercial uses, advertising; research projects, State National Guard 

maneuvers, and motion picture filming. Recreational concessions are considered business uses and may be authorized 

by lease. Timber harvest, livestock grazing, mineral extraction and special recreation events, among other uses, are 

authorized under other regulations and not under Section 302 of the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA). 

Avoidance Areas: Areas to be avoided but may be available for location of rights-of-way with special stipulations. 

(BLM Land Use Planning Handbook, Appendix C)

Back Country Byways: Vehicle routes that traverse scenic corridors utilizing secondary or back country road systems. 

National back country byways are designated by the type of road and vehicle needed to travel the byway. 

Badland: Moderately steep to very steep barren land dissected by many intermittent or ephemeral drainage channels. 

Potential runoff is very high, and erosion is active.

Bankfull Channel: The elevation on the stream-bank where flooding begins. Bankfull discharge normally re-occurs 

every 1 1/2 years. The bankfull stage corresponds to the discharge at which channel maintenance is effective. 

Bankhead-Jones Lands: See LU Lands.

Basin: A depressed area having no surface outlet (topographic basin); a physiographic feature or subsurface structure 

that is capable of collecting, storing, or discharging water by reason of its shape and the characteristics of its confining 

material (water); a depression in the earth’s surface, the lowest part often filled by a lake or pond (lake basin); a part of a 

river or canal widened (drainage, river, stream basin). 

Beneficial of Positive: An effect promoting a favorable result for a specific resource of resource use. Could be used in 

short-term, long-term, or both short and long-term contexts. 

Best Management Practices (BMPs): A suite of techniques that guide, or may be applied to, management actions to 

aid in achieving desired outcomes. Best management practices are often developed in conjunction with land use plans, 
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but they are not considered a land use plan decision unless the land use plan specifies that they are mandatory. They 

may be updated or modified without a plan amendment if they are not mandatory. 

Big Game: Large species of wildlife that are hunted, such as elk, deer, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn antelope. 

Big Game Analysis Unit: Logical locations across the landscape to conduct analysis of big game winter range. These 

areas were broken out based on a combination of Elk Management Units from Montana’s Elk Management Plan (MFWP 

2004) and watershed boundaries. 

Biodiversity: The diversity of living organisms considered at all levels of organization including genetics, species, and 

higher taxonomic levels, and the variety of habitats and ecosystems, as well as the processes occurring therein. 

Biological Assessment: The gathering and evaluation of information on proposed endangered and threatened species 

and critical habitat and proposed critical habitat. Required when a management action potentially conflicts with 

endangered or threatened species, the biological assessment is the way federal agencies enter into formal consultation 

with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and describe a proposed action and the consequences to the species the action 

would affect. 

Biological Weed Treatment: These are treatments which involve living creatures, such as insects, sheep and goat 

grazing, plant pathogens, and biopesticides. 

Biomass: Woody biomass is defined as the trees and woody plants, including limbs, tops, needles, leaves, and other 

woody parts, grown in a forest, woodland, or rangeland environment, that are the by-products of forest management. 

Board Feet: A unit of solid wood one foot square and one inch thick (BF - board foot, MBF - thousand board feet, 

MMBF - million board feet).

Browse: To browse (verb) is to graze a plant; also, browse (noun) is the tender shoots, twigs and leaves of trees and 

shrubs often used as food by livestock and wildlife. 

Buffer Zone (STRIP): A protective area adjacent to an area of concern requiring special attention or protection. In 

contrast to riparian zones which are ecological units, buffer strips can be designed to meet varying management 

concerns. 

Bunchgrass: Individual grasses that have the characteristic growth habit of forming a “bunch” as opposed to having 

stolens or rhizomes or single annual habit. 

Burn Plan: A plan required for every fire application ignited by management. Plans are documents prepared by 

qualified personnel, approved by the agency administrator, and include criteria for the conditions under which the fire 

will be conducted (a prescription). Same as Prescribed Fire Burn Plan.

Burn Severity: A qualitative assessment of the heat pulse directed toward the ground during a fire. Burn severity 

relates to soil heating, large fuel and duff consumption, consumption of the litter and organic layer beneath trees and 

isolated shrubs, and mortality of buried plant parts. See also Fire Severity.

Candidate Species: Any species included in the Federal Register notice of review that are being considered for listing 

as threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Canopy: Foliar layer(s) consisting of the crowns of trees or shrubs in a forest or woodland. 

Carrying Capacity: The maximum stocking rate possible without damaging vegetation or related resources. 

Cenozoic: The most recent era of geologic history (65 million years ago until the present) during which the world’s 

modern landforms, animals, and plants came into being. 
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Channel: An open conduit either naturally or artificially created which periodically or continuously contains moving 

water or forms a connecting link between two bodies of water. 

Chemical Weed Treatment: These are treatments using additives, such as applying herbicides or changing soil nutrient 

ratios. 

Class III Archaeological Survey: A continuous, intensive survey of an entire target area, aimed at locating and 

recording all archaeological properties that have surface indications, by walking close-interval parallel transects until the 

area has been thoroughly examined. Class III methods vary geographically, conforming to the prevailing standards for 

the region involved.

The survey describes the distribution of properties in an area; determines the number, location and condition of 

properties; determines the types of properties actually present within the area; permits classification of individual 

properties; and records the physical extent of specific properties.

Because Class III survey is designed to produce a total inventory of the cultural properties observable within the target 

area, once it has been completed no further survey work should be needed in the target area as long as the current 

standards are met. Areas with a high probability of containing buried cultural materials or known cultural materials may 

require additional work of professional monitoring and/or data recovery excavations. Areas that require additional work 

are analyzed on a case-by-case basis, depending on the proposed action and the types of cultural resources present in the 

project area.

Classification: The authority of the Secretary of the Interior to examine land to see whether it is proper for entry, 

selection, or location. 

Classification of Lands: The process of determining whether lands are more valuable or suitable for transfer or use 

under particular or various public land laws than for retention in federal ownership for management purposes. 

Clean Air Act (CAA): Federal legislation governing air pollution. 

Climax: The culminating stage in plant succession for a given site where vegetation has reached a highly stable 

condition. 

Climax Vegetation: The ecological vegetation community that represents the culminating stage or highest development 

of natural vegetative succession. The climax community often can perpetuate itself indefinitely unless disturbed by 

outside forces. 

Close (Segregate): To remove land from operation of some or all of the public land laws for a given period of time. 

Closed: Generally denotes that an area is not available for a particular use or uses; refer to specific definitions found in 

law, regulations, or policy guidance for application to individual programs. 

Closed Road: Closed to motorized public access and subject to administrative or permitted uses based on case-specific 

exceptions (such as for mining claimants with existing claims accessed by existing routes). Routes identified as closed 

would have a route bed left intact in case they are needed for valid existing rights only, or in the extended future for 

administrative purposes. Closed routes would be open to non-motorized use. 

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): The official, legal tabulation or regulations directing federal government 

activities. 

Collaboration: A cooperative process in which interested parties, often with widely varied interests, work together to 

seek solutions with broad support for managing public and other lands. 

Commercial Forest Land: Forest land which is producing, or has a site capable of producing, at least 20 cubic 

feet/acre/year of a commercial tree species. 
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Common Variety Minerals: Stone, gravel, pumice, pumiced, and cinders that, though possibly having value for trade, 

manufacture, the sciences, or the mechanical or ornamental arts, do not have a distinct, special value for such use beyond 

normal uses. On the public lands such minerals are considered salable and are disposed of by sales or by special permits 

to local governments. 

Community: An assemblage of plant and animal populations in a common spatial arrangement. 

Community Noise Equivalent Level (CNEL): The energy average of the A-weighted sound levels occurring during a 

24-hour period with 5 dB added to the A-weighted sound levels occurring during the period from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. 

and 10 dB added to the A-weighted sound levels occurring during the period from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.

Composition (of Forest Vegetation): The proportion of each tree species in a stand, expressed as a percentage of the 

total number, basal area, or volume of all tree species in the stand. 

Condition Class: A classification of the degree of departure from historical fire regimes, possibly resulting in 

alternations of key ecosystem components. These classes categorize and describe vegetation composition and structure 

conditions that currently exist inside the Fire Regime Groups. The risk of loss of key ecosystem components from 

wildfires increases from Condition Class 1 (lowest risk) to Condition Class 3 (highest risk). Synonymous with Fire 

Regime Condition Class (FRCC).

Conformance: That a proposed action shall be specifically provided for in the land use plan or, if not specifically 

mentioned, shall be clearly consistent with the goals, objectives, or standards of the approved land use plan. 

Conifer: A tree or shrub of the order Coniferae with cones and needle-shaped or scale-like leaves. 

Coniferous: Pertaining to conifers, which bear woody cones containing naked seeds. 

Connectivity: The degree to which similar but separated vegetation components of a landscape are connected. 

Conservation Agreement: A formal signed agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine 

Fisheries Service and other parties that implements specific actions, activities, or programs designed to eliminate or 

reduce threats or otherwise improve the status of a species. Conservation agreements can be developed at a state, 

regional, or national level and generally include multiple agencies at both the state and federal level, as well as tribes. 

Depending on the types of commitments the BLM makes in a conservation agreement and the level of signatory 

authority, plan revisions or amendments may be required prior to signing the conservation agreement, or subsequently in 

order to implement the conservation agreement. 

Conservation Strategy: A strategy outlining current activities or threats that are contributing to the decline of a species, 

along with the actions or strategies needed to reverse or eliminate such a decline or threats. Conservation strategies are 

generally developed for species of plants and animals that are designated as BLM Sensitive species or that have been 

determined by the Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service to be federal candidates under the 

Endangered Species Act. 

Consistency: The proposed land use plan does not conflict with officially approved plans, programs, and policies of 

tribes, other federal agencies, and state, and local governments to the extent practical within federal law, regulation, and 

policy. 

Contiguous: Lands or legal subdivisions having a common boundary; lands having only a common corner are not 

contiguous. 

Cooperating Agency: Assists the lead federal agency in developing an environmental analysis or environmental impact 

statement. The Council on Environmental Quality regulations implementing NEPA define a cooperating agency as any

other federal agency which has jurisdiction by law or special expertise for proposals covered by NEPA. Any tribe or 

federal, state, or local government jurisdiction with such qualifications may become a cooperating agency by agreement 

with the lead agency. 
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Corridor: A designated right-of-way corridor is a parcel of land with specific boundaries identified by law, Secretarial 

order, the land-use planning process, or other management decision, as being a preferred location for existing and future 

rights-of-way and facilities. The corridor may be suitable to accommodate more than one type of right-of-way use or 

facility or one or more right-of-way uses or facilities which are similar, identical, or compatible. (43 CFR 2801.5(b)(9))

Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ): An Executive Office advisory council established by the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 for review of federal program effects on the environment. The council conducts

environmental studies and advises the President on environmental matters. 

Cover: Any form of environmental protection that helps an animal stay alive (mainly shelter from weather and 

concealment from predators). 

Cover Type: The present vegetation composition of an area, described by the dominant plant species. 

Critical Habitat: An area occupied by a threatened or endangered species “on which are found those physical and 

biological features (1) essential to the conservation of the species, and (2) which may require special management 

considerations or protection.” 

Crucial Winter Range: That part of the winter range where a majority of the wildlife population (primarily mule deer) 

is located (or 90% of the individuals) when the annual snowpack is at its maximum and/or temperatures are at a 

minimum in the two worst winters out of ten.

Cultural Resource / Cultural Property: A definite location of human activity, occupation, or use identifiable through 

field inventory (survey), historical documentation, or oral evidence. The term includes archaeological, historic, or 

architectural sites, structures, or places with important public and scientific uses, and may include definite locations 

(sites or places) or traditional cultural or religious importance to specified social and/or cultural groups. Cultural 

resources are concrete, material places and things that are located, classified, ranked, and managed through the system of 

identifying, protecting, and utilizing for public benefit. 

Cultural Resource Inventory Classes: 

• Class I – Existing data inventory: a study of published and unpublished documents, records, files, registers, and 

other sources, resulting in analysis and synthesis of all reasonably available data. Class I inventories encompass 

prehistoric, historic, and ethnological/sociological elements, and are in large part chronicles of past land uses. 

They may have major relevance to current land use decisions. 

• Class II – Sampling field inventory: a statistically based sample survey designed to help characterize the 

probable density, diversity, and distribution of archaeological properties in a large area by interpreting the 

results of surveying limited and discontinuous portions of the target area. 

• Class III – Intensive field inventory: a continuous, intensive survey of an entire target area, aimed at locating 

and recording all archaeological properties that have surface indications, by walking close-interval parallel 

transects (generally at 30 m intervals) until the area has been thoroughly examined. 

Cultural Weed Treatment: These are treatments which involve human behavior, such as using quarantine, closure, or 

relocation of a particular activity to reduce weed spread, selective timing and choice of stock for grazing, containing 

livestock after they have grazed in a weed infested area, revegetation seed mix choices for rehabilitating new soil 

disturbances, land use choices, and public outreach methods. 

Cumulative Impact: The impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when 

added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency (federal or non-federal) 

or person undertakes such other actions. Cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively 

significant actions taking place over a period of time. 

Day-Night Level (Ldn): The energy average of the A-weighted sound levels occurring during a 24-hour period, with 10 

dB added to the A-weighted sound levels occurring during the period from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
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Deciduous: Pertaining to plants that shed all their leaves every year in a certain season. 

Decommissioned Road: Route is closed and rehabilitated to eliminate resource impacts (for example, to eliminate 

erosion or to restore a riparian area if route is located within a riparian area) and is no longer useable for public or 

administrative uses. 

Deep Soils: Soils that are 40 to 60 inches deep to bedrock. 

Denning Habitat: Habitat used during parturition and rearing of young until they are mobile. The common component 

appears to be large amounts of coarse woody debris, either down logs or root wads. Coarse woody debris provides 

escape and thermal cover for kittens. Denning habitat may be found either in older mature forest of conifer or mixed 

conifer/deciduous types, or in regenerating stands (>20 years since disturbance). Denning habitat must be located within 

daily travel distance of foraging habitat (typical maximum daily distance for females is 3-6 miles). 

Designated Roads and Trails: Specific roads and trails where some type of motorized vehicle use is allowed either 

seasonally or year long. 

Desired Future Condition: Outcomes representing the long-term vision of BLM with regard to the resources managed 

on BLM land. 

Developed Recreation: Recreation that requires facilities and might result in concentrated use of an area; for example, 

a campground. 

Dispersed Recreation: Recreation activities of an unstructured type which are not confined to specific locations such as 

recreation sites. Example of these activities may be hunting, fishing, off-road vehicle use, hiking, and sightseeing. 

Disturbance: Events that alter the structure, composition, or function of terrestrial or aquatic habitats. Natural 

disturbances include drought, floods, wind, fires, wildlife grazing, and insects and pathogens. Human-caused 

disturbances include actions such as timber harvest, fire, livestock grazing, road construction, and the introduction of 

exotic species. 

Distribution Line: An electric power line operating at a voltage of less than 69 kilovolts. 

Diversity: The relative abundance of wildlife species, plant species, communities, habitats, or habitat features per unit 

of area. 

Drainage: The removal of excess water from land by surface or subsurface flow. 

Drilling: The operation of boring a hole in the earth, usually for the purpose of finding and removing subsurface 

formation fluids such as oil and gas. 

Easement: A right afforded a person or agency to make limited use of another’s real property for access or other 

purposes. 

Ecological Function: The process through which the constituent living and nonliving elements of ecosystems change 

and interact, including biogeochemical processes and succession. 

Economics: The study of allocation of limited resources, goods, and services among competing uses. 

Ecosystem: A complete, interacting system of living organisms and the land and water that make up their environment; 

the home places of all living things, including humans. 

Eligibility (for Wild and Scenic Rivers): A river is eligible for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic River System 

if it is free flowing and has at least one river-related value that is considered outstandingly remarkable. 
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Elk Management Unit: Designated by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, establishes statewide elk management 

population objectives and divides Montana’s elk habitat into 35 management units, each with its own elk management 

objectives and elk population targets. 

Emergent Vegetation: Aquatic plant species that are rooted in wetlands but extend above the water’s surface. 

Encroach: Plant succession in the absence of disturbance, in areas the plant type is not desired. Often associated with 

vegetative type conversion such as conifer colonization of grass or shrub meadows. 

Endangered Species: Any plant or animal species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant 

portion of its range. 

Entry: An application to acquire title to public lands. 

Environmental Assessment: A concise public document that analyzes the environmental impacts of a proposed federal 

action and provides sufficient evidence to determine the level of significance of the impacts. 

Environmental Impact Statement: A detailed written statement required by the National Environmental Policy Act 

when an agency proposes a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. 

Environmental Justice: Refers to the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of people of all races, cultures and 

incomes with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, programs 

and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group should bear 

a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and 

commercial operations or the execution of federal state, local and tribal programs and policies. 

Ephemeral Area: Watershed land area that delivers surface water flow during spring runoff, rain and snow storms to 

intermittent and perennial streams. 

Ephemeral Stream: A stream or part of a stream that flows only in direct response to precipitation; it receives little or 

no water from springs, melting snow, or other sources; its channel is at all times above the water table.

Erosion: The wearing away of the land surface by running water, wind, ice, or other geological agents. 

Exception (Oil and Gas): A one-time exemption to a lease stipulation. Exceptions are determined on a case-by-case 

basis. 

Exchange: A trading of public lands (surface and/or subsurface estates) that usually do not have high public value, for 

lands in other ownerships that do have value for public use, management, and enjoyment. The exchange may be for the 

benefit of other federal agencies as well as for BLM. 

Exclusion Areas: Areas which are not available for location of rights-of-way under any conditions (BLM Land Use 

Planning Handbook, Appendix C).

Exploration: The work of investigating a mineral deposit to determine by geological surveys, geophysical surveys, 

geochemical surveys, boreholes, pits, and underground workings if it is feasible to mine. 

Extensive Recreation Management Area (ERMA): An identified area of BLM land managed to provide stewardship 

of resources and visitor use. Investments are limited to stewardship actions only within ERMAs. 

Facultative (FAC): Plant species equally likely to occur in wetlands, riparian areas or non-wetlands (estimated 

probability 34%-66%). 

Facultative Wetland (FACW): Plant species that usually occur in wetlands or riparian areas (estimated probability 

67%-99%), but occasionally found in non-wetlands or uplands. 
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Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976: Public Law 94-579, October 21, 1976, often referred to as the 

BLM’ s “Organic Act,” which provides the majority of the BLM’s legislated authority, direction, policy, and basic 

management guidance. 

Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act (FLTFA): FLTFA monies accrue from disposal of BLM lands by sale and 

the monies stay within the state where the disposal parcels are located. The BLM is entitled to 60% of the fund, while 

the Forest Service, Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service are each entitled to 10%. The remaining 10% covers 

administrative costs. A proposal to use the fund for a specific acquisition must be presented to and agreed upon by all 

four agencies. 

Federal Power Project Reservation: A reservation of public lands for use in a project developed under the jurisdiction 

of the Federal Power Commission. 

Federal Register: A daily publication that reports Presidential and federal agency documents. 

Fire Frequency: How often fire burns a given area; often expressed in terms of fire return intervals. For example, a site 

might burn every 5 to 15 years. 

Fire Intensity: The rate of energy released per unit length of the fire front; loosely, how hot the fire is burning.

Fire Management Category: A classification for landscape-level fire and fuels management strategies and options 

based on consideration of fire history, land status, issues, concerns, hazardous fuels, and other resource objectives. 

There are four categories which range from Category A where wild and prescribed fire are not desired due to reasons 

other than ecological; to Category D where fire may be desired and there are no constraints associated with the resource 

condition, or social, economic, or political considerations.

Fire Management Plan: A strategic plan that defines a program to manage wildland fire (wildfire and prescribed fire) 

and documents the fire management program in the approved land use plan; the plan is supplemented by operational 

procedures such as preparedness plans, preplanned dispatch plans, prescribed fire plans, and prevention plans.

Fire Management Unit: A land management area definable by objectives, management constraints, topographic 

features, access, values to be protected, political boundaries, fuel types, major fire regime groups, etc. that set it apart 

from the characteristics of an adjacent FMU. The FMU may have dominant management objectives and pre-selected 

strategies assigned to accomplish these objectives.

Fire Management Zone: Administrative unit for wildland fire suppression, for the execution of all logistical, aviation, 

and support activities within this geographical area. 

Fire Preparedness: Activities that lead to a safe, efficient, and cost-effective fire management program in support of 

land and resource management objectives through appropriate planning and coordination. 

Fire Regimes: Descriptions of the patterns of fire occurrence, frequency, size, and severity in a given area or 

ecosystem. A fire regime is a generalization based on fire histories at individual sites. Fire regimes can often be 

described as cycles because some parts of the histories usually get repeated, and the repetitions can be counted and 

measured, such as fire return interval. 

Fire Regime Condition Class: A classification describing the degree of departure from historical fire regimes, possibly 

resulting in alternations of key ecosystem components. These classes categorize and describe vegetation composition 

and structure conditions that currently exist inside the Fire Regime Groups. The risk of loss of key ecosystem 

components from wildfires increases from Condition Class 1 (lowest risk) to Condition Class 3 (highest risk). See also

Condition Class.

Fire Regime Groups: A classification of fire regimes into groups based on frequency and severity. The national

classification includes five groups: I - frequent (0-35 years), low severity; II - frequent (0-35 years), stand replacement 

severity; III - 35-100+ years, mixed severity; IV - 35-100+ years, stand replacement severity; and V - 200+ years, stand 

replacement severity.
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Fire Severity: The degree to which a site has been altered by fire; a product of fire intensity and residence time. See 

also Burn Severity.

Fishery: Habitat that supports the propagation and maintenance of fish. 

Flood Plain: The relatively flat area or lowlands adjoining a body of standing or flowing water which has been or might 

be covered by floodwater. 

Fluvial: Pertaining to streams or produced by stream action. 

Forage: All browse and herbaceous foods available to grazing animals, which may be grazed or harvested for feeding. 

Forb: An herbaceous plant that is not a grass, sedge, or rush. 

Forest Health: The perceived condition of a forest derived from concerns about such factors as its age, structure, 

composition, function, vigor, presence, or unusual levels of insects and disease, and resilience to disturbance. 

Forest Health Treatments: Treatments that restore forest ecosystems or stands to a condition that sustains their 

complexity, function and/or productivity while providing for human needs. 

Forest Land: Land that is now, or has the potential of being, at least 10% stocked by forest trees (based on crown 

closure) or 16.7% stocked (based on tree stocking). 

Formation: A body of rock identified by lithic characteristics and stratigraphic position; it is prevailingly, but not 

necessarily tabular, and is mappable at the earth’s surface or traceable in the subsurface. 

Fossil: Mineralized or petrified form from a past geologic age, especially from previously living things. 

Fragmentation: The splitting or isolating of patches of similar habitat. Habitat can be fragmented by natural events or 

development activities. 

Free-Flowing River: Existing or flowing in a natural condition without impoundment, diversion, straightening, riprapping, or other modification of the waterway. 

Fuel Loading: Relative to flammable vegetation and natural debris, the amount of fuel present expressed quantitatively 

in terms of weight of fuel per unit area (ex: tons per acre).

Fuel Management: The act or practice of controlling flammability of vegetation and reducing resistance to control of 

wildland fires through mechanical, prescribed fire, chemical, or biological means, in support of land management 

objectives.

Fuel Model: A fuel complex used for mathematical calculations for the prediction of fire rate of spread. Fuel models, 

fuel moisture, and weather parameters are used to calculate fire behavior and to formulate parameters for prescribed fire 

projects.

Fuel Treatment: The manipulation or removal of fuels to reduce the likelihood of ignition and/or to lessen potential 

damage and resistance to fire control (e.g., lopping, chipping, crushing, piling and burning).

Fuel Type: An identifiable association of fuel elements of a distinctive plant species, form, size, arrangement, or other 

characteristics that will cause a predictable rate of fire spread or difficulty of control under specified weather conditions. 

Game Species: Any species of wildlife or fish for which seasons and bag limits have been prescribed, and which are 

normally harvested by hunters, trappers, and fisherman under state or federal laws, codes, and regulations. 
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General Orders of Withdrawals: Executive Orders No. 6910 of November 26, 1934, and No. 6964 of February 5, 

1935, which withdrew for classification all vacant public lands in the 11 western states and certain other public land 

states. 

Geographic Information System (GIS): A system of computer hardware, software, data, people and applications that 

capture, store, edit, analyze and graphically display a potentially wide array of geospatial information. 

Geophysical Exploration: The use of geophysical instruments and methods to determine subsurface conditions by 

analyzing such properties as specific gravity, electrical conductivity, or magnetic susceptibility. 

Goal: A broad statement of a desired outcome. Goals are usually not quantifiable and may not have established time 

frames for achievement. 

Grassland Bird/Greater Sage-Grouse Priority Areas: Areas containing substantial and high quality grasslands that 

support large populations of a suite of special status grassland bird species. This suite of species includes the following 

species of concern: Sprague’s pipit, chestnut-collared longspur, McCown’s longspur, Baird’s sparrow, and long-billed 

curlew. Management actions would emphasize the conservation and enhancement of sustainable grassland bird habitats. 

Areas are delineated by using survey results, predictive models of species distributions, and land ownership patterns.

These areas also include core area for greater sage-grouse identified by MFWP. Sage-grouse core areas are habitats 

associated with 1) Montana’s highest densities of sage-grouse, based on male counts and/or 2) sage-grouse lek 

complexes and associated habitat important to sage-grouse distribution.

Grazing Relinquishment: The voluntary and permanent surrender by an existing permittee or lessee, (with concurrence 

of any base property lienholder(s)), of their priority (preference) to use a livestock forage allocation on public land as 

well as their permission to use this forage. Relinquishments do not require the consent or approval of the BLM. The 

BLM’s receipt of a relinquishment is not a decision to close areas to livestock grazing. See also Retirement of Grazing 

Privileges.

Grazing System: The manipulation of livestock grazing to accomplish a desired result. 

Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat: A specific environment, or set of environmental conditions suitable for occupancy by 

greater sage-grouse often typified by the presence of sagebrush. Sage-grouse habitat may be further defined by the 

season of use (i.e., winter, breeding, and brood rearing), each with its own set of different environmental conditions. 

Each planning area may further define seasonal habitat characteristics based on local ecological conditions. See also

Sage-Grouse Habitat – General Habitat Areas; Sage-Grouse Habitat - Protection Priority Areas; and Sage-Grouse Habitat 

– Restoration Areas.

Greater Sage-Grouse Protection Priority Area: An area with limited impacts containing substantial and high quality 

greater sage-grouse habitat that supports high density greater sage-grouse populations. Management actions would 

emphasize the conservation and enhancement of sustainable greater sage-grouse habitat. The area is delineated by using 

“key,” “core” and connectivity data/maps land ownership patterns, and other resource information.

Groundwater: Water contained in pore spaces of consolidated and unconsolidated surface material. 

Guidelines: Actions or management practices that may be used to achieve desired outcomes, sometimes expressed as 

best management practices. Guidelines may be identified during the land use planning process, but they are not 

considered a land use plan decision unless the plan specifies that they are mandatory. 

Habitat: a. Species specific environment or environmental conditions suitable for occupancy by that species. 

b. a particular land cover type that provides an environment or environmental conditions suitable for occupancy by many 

species.

Habitat Connectivity: Vegetative cover in sufficient quantity and arrangement to allow for the movement of wildlife. 

Habitat Diversity: The variation in types, sizes, and shapes of landscape elements or vegetation types. 
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Habitat Type: A site classification of all land areas potentially capable of producing similar plant communities at the 

climax phase of succession. 

Hazardous Fuel: Excessive live or dead wildland fuel accumulations that increase the potential for uncharacteristically 

intense wildland fire and decrease the capability to protect life, property, and natural resources. 

Healthy Forest Initiative of 2002: Presidential direction to the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior to improve 

regulatory processes and management efficiency in reducing the threat of destructive wildfires while upholding 

environmental standards and encouraging early public input during review and planning processes. The initiative is 

based on sound science and helps care for forests and rangelands, reduce the risk of catastrophic fire to communities, 

help save the lives of firefighters and citizens, and protect threatened and endangered species. 

Heavy Metal: Any of the metals that react readily with dithizone, including zinc, copper, cobalt, lead, bismuth, gold, 

cadmium, iron, manganese, nickel, tantalum, tellurium, platinum, and silver. 

Herbaceous: Pertaining to or characteristic of an herb (fleshy-stem plant) as distinguished from the woody tissue of 

shrubs and trees. 

Heterogeneous: Composed of differing parts or elements.

High or Major: An effect is severe; there would be a highly noticeable, long-term or permanent measurable change. 

Historic: Period wherein nonnative cultural activities took place, based primarily upon European roots, having no origin 

in the traditional Native American culture(s). 

Historic property or Historic Resource: “any prehistoric or historic district, site, building, structure, or object included 

in, or eligible for inclusion in, the National Register. The term includes, for purposes of these regulations, artifacts, 

records, and remains that are related to and located within such properties. The term ‘eligible for inclusion in the 

National Register’ includes both properties formally determined as such by the Secretary of the Interior and all other 

properties that meet National Register listing criteria.” (quoted from 36 CFR 900.2(e)). 

Home Range: The area in which an animal travels in the scope of natural activities. 

Horizon (Soil): A layer of soil or soil material roughly parallel to the land surface and differing from adjoining 

genetically related layers in physical, chemical, and biological properties or characteristics, such as color, structure, and

texture. 

Hummock: A low, rounded hill, knoll, hillock; a tract of wooded land higher than a nearby swamp or marsh. 

Hydrologic Condition: The current state of the processes controlling the yield, timing, and quality of water in a 

watershed. Each physical and biologic process that regulates or influences stream flow and groundwater character has a 

range of variability associated with the rate or magnitude of energy and mass exchange. At any point in time, each of 

these processes can be defined by their current rate or magnitude relative to the range of variability associated with each 

process. Integration of all processes at one time represents hydrologic condition. 

Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC): A coding system developed by the U.S. Geological Survey to map geographic 

boundaries of watersheds by size. 

Hydrophytic: Water-loving; ability to grow in water or saturated soils. 

Igneous Rock: Rock, such as granite and basalt, which has solidified from a molten or partially molten state. 

Impact: A modification of the existing environment caused by an action (such as construction or operation of facilities). 

Impacts (or Effects): Environmental consequences (the scientific and analytical basis for comparison of alternatives) as 

a result of a proposed action. Effects may be either direct, which are caused by the action and occur at the same time and 
Glossary HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

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place, or indirect, which are caused by the action and are later in time or farther removed in distance, but are still 

reasonably foreseeable, or cumulative. 

Impact Analysis for Planning (IMPLAN): The IMPLAN Model is the most flexible, detailed and widely used inputoutput impact model system in the U.S. It provides users with the ability to define industries, economic relationships 

and projects to be analyzed. It can be customized for any county, region or state, and used to assess "multiplier effects" 

caused by increasing or decreasing spending in various parts of the economy. This can be used to assess the economic 

impacts of resource management decisions, facilities, industries, or changes in their level of activity in a given area.

Implementation Decisions: Decisions that take action to implement land use plan decisions. They are generally 

appealable to Interior Board of Land Appeals. 

Implementation Plan: A site-specific plan written to implement decisions made in a land use plan. An implementation 

plans usually selects and applies best management practices to meet land use plan objectives. Implementation plans 

include both activity plans and project plans. 

Indian Tribe: Any Indian group in the conterminous United States that the Secretary of the Interior recognizes as 

possessing tribal status. 

Indicator (Species): A species of animal or plant whose presence is a fairly certain indication of a particular set of 

environmental conditions. Indicator species serve to show the effects of development actions on the environment. 

Indirect Effects: Secondary effects that occur in locations other that the initial action or later in time. 

Infiltration: The downward entry of water into the soil or other material. 

Initial Fire (Attack): An aggressive fire suppression action consistent with firefighter and public safety and values to 

be protected. 

Integrated Weed Management (IWM): This is a decision support system involving deliberate selection, integration, 

and implementation of effective weed management tactics. It utilizes cost/benefit analysis and takes into consideration 

public interests and social, economic, and ecological impacts in the decisionmaking process. 

Interdisciplinary Team: A group of individuals with different training, representing the physical sciences, social 

sciences, and environmental design arts, assembled to solve a problem or perform a task. The members of the team 

proceed to a solution with frequent interaction so that each discipline may provide insights to any stage of the problem 

and disciplines may combine to provide new solutions. The number and disciplines of the members preparing the plan 

vary with circumstances. A member may represent one or more discipline or Bureau program interest. 

Interim Management Policy: Policy that guides management of the BLM’s Wilderness Study Areas. The policy 

balances the various uses of Wilderness Study Areas with the requirement to protect the lands wilderness values. 

Interior Board of Land Appeals: The Department of the Interior, Office of Hearings and Appeals board that acts for 

the Secretary of the Interior in responding to appeals of decisions on the use and disposition of public lands and 

resources. Because the Interior Board of Land Appeals acts for and on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior, its 

decisions usually represent the Department’s final decision but are subject to the courts. 

Intermittent Stream: A stream that flows only when it receives water from rainfall runoff or springs, or from some 

surface source such as melting snow.

Invasive Plants: Plants which are invasive species. 

Invasive Species: Organisms that have been introduced into an environment where they did not evolve. Executive 

Order 13112 focuses on organism whose presence is likely to cause economic harm, environmental harm, or harms to 

human health. 
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Inversion: The state of the atmosphere in which a layer of cool air is trapped near the earth’s surface by an overlying 

layer of warm air so that the lower layer cannot rise. Serious air pollution problems may result from air pollutants being 

emitted into the limited mixing depth below the inversion. 

Irreversible Commitment of Resources: Result from the use or destruction of a specific resource that cannot be 

replaced within a reasonable timeframe. 

Irretrievable Commitment of Resources: Result from actions in which resources are considered permanently lost. 

Jurisdiction: The legal right to control or regulate use of a transportation facility. Jurisdiction requires authority, but 

not necessarily ownership. 

Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF): Most LWCF monies comes from Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas 

leasing, and are used for the purchase of land, waters and wetlands with an emphasis on special management areas. 

Congress allocates the money based on competing proposals submitted by various BLM offices.

Land Classification: A process for determining the suitability of public lands for certain types of disposal or lease 

under the public land laws or for retention under multiple use management. 

Land Use Allocation: The identification in a land use plan of the activities and foreseeable development that are 

allowed, restricted, or excluded for all or part of the planning area, based on desired future conditions. 

Land Use Plan: A set of decisions that establish management direction for land within an administrative area, as 

prescribed under the planning provisions of FLPMA; an assimilation of land-use-plan-level decisions developed through 

the planning process, regardless of the scale at which the decisions were developed. 

Leasable Minerals: Those minerals or materials designated as leasable under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. They 

include coal, phosphate, asphalt, sulphur, potassium, and sodium minerals, and oil, gas, and geothermal. 

Lease: (1) A legal document that conveys to an operator the right to drill for oil and gas; (2) the tract of land, on which a 

lease has been obtained, where producing wells and production equipment are located. 

Lease (Occupancy): A usually long-term authorization to possess and use public lands for a fixed period of time (43 

CFR 2910).

Lease Stipulation (Oil and Gas): Conditions of lease issuance that provide protection for other resource values or land 

uses by establishing authority for substantial delay or site changes or the denial of operations within the terms of the 

lease contract. The authorized officer has the authority to relocate, control timing, and impose other mitigation measures 

under Section 6 of the Standard Lease Form. Lease stipulations clarify the Bureau’s intent to protect know resources or 

resource values. 

Lessee: A person or entity holding record title in a lease issued by the United States (see 43 CFR 3160.05). 

Lessee (Grazing): Holder of a valid lease that authorizes grazing use of the public lands outside the grazing district. 

Lek – Greater Sage-Grouse

Confirmed greater sage-grouse lek – data supports existence of lek. Supporting data defined as: a) minimum of 2 years 

with 2 or more males lekking on site (preferred); or b) 1 year with 2 or more males lekking on site followed with 

evidence of lekking (vegetation trampling, feathers, and droppings) during subsequent year. One of three subcategories 

will be assigned a confirmed lek:

a. Active – default assignment unless criteria are met for “inactive” or “extirpated.”

b. Inactive –10 years with no sign of lek activity - supported by surveys conducted during 3 or more years over the 

last 10 years.

c. Extirpated – Habitat changes have caused birds to permanently abandon a lek (e.g., plowing, urban 

development, overhead power line).
Glossary HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

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Provisionally confirmed greater sage-grouse lek – only one year of survey data is available but more than 5 males were 

observed.

Unconfirmed greater sage-grouse lek – single count with no subsequent survey or a reported lek without supporting 

survey data. 

Lek – Sharp-tailed Grouse: 

Confirmed sharp-tailed grouse lek – data supports existence of lek. Supporting data defined as: a) minimum of 2 years 

with 2 or more males lekking on site (preferred); or b) 1 year with 2 or more males lekking on site followed with 

evidence of lekking (vegetation trampling, feathers, and droppings) during subsequent year. One of three subcategories 

will be assigned a confirmed lek:

a. Active – default assignment unless criteria are met for “inactive” or “extirpated.”

b. Inactive –10 years with no sign of lek activity - supported by surveys conducted during 3 or more years over the 

last 10 years.

c. Extirpated – Habitat changes have caused birds to permanently abandon a lek (e.g., plowing, urban 

development, overhead power line).

Unconfirmed sharp-tailed grouse lek – single count with no subsequent survey or a reported lek without supporting 

survey data.

Lentic: Standing water.

Lentic Riparian: Standing water habitat such as lakes, ponds, seeps, bogs and meadows.

Lentic Riparian-Wetland Resources: Resources whose capabilities and potentials are defined by the interaction of 

three physical components: 1) vegetation, 2) landform/soils, and 3) hydrology. 

Limited Areas or Trails: Designated areas or trails where the use of off-road vehicles is subject to restrictions, such as 

limiting the number or types or vehicles allowed, dates and times of use (seasonal restrictions), limiting use to existing 

roads, primitive roads and trails, or limiting use to designated roads and trails. Under the designated roads and trails 

designation, use would be allowed only on roads and trails that are signed for use. Combinations of restrictions are 

possible, such as limiting use to certain types of vehicles during certain times of the year. 

Linkage: Route that permits movement of individual plants (by dispersal) and animals from a habitat type to another 

similar habitat type. 

Litter: The uppermost layer of organic debris on the soil surface, essentially the freshly fallen or slightly decomposed 

vegetal material. 

Locatable Minerals: Minerals subject to exploration, development, and disposal by staking mining claims as 

authorized by the Mining Law of 1872, as amended. This includes deposits of gold, silver, and other uncommon 

minerals not subject to lease or sale. 

Lode Mining: Mining of a mineral deposit in solid rock. 

Long Term: Effects lasting more than 10 years. 

Lotic: Moving water.

Lotic Riparian: Running water habitat such as rivers, streams and springs.

Lotic Riparian-Wetland Resources: Resources whose capabilities and potentials are defined by the interaction of three 

physical components: 1) vegetation, 2) landform/soils, and 3) hydrology. 

Low or Minor: An effect is slight but detectable; there would be a small change. 
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LU Lands (also referred to as Acquired Lands or Bankhead-Jones Lands): Under Title III of the Bankhead-Jones 

Farm Tenant Act of July 22, 1937, the Department of Agriculture was authorized to purchase submarginal farm lands in 

the Great Plains region for purposes of reclamation, conservation, etc. Approximately two million acres were acquired 

and are termed “Bankhead-Jones Lands.” These lands are now under the administration of the BLM, are in the class of 

federal lands called “acquired lands” and are not subject to entry or disposal under the general public land laws.

Lynx Habitat: Lynx occur in mesic coniferous forest that have cold, snowy winters and provide a prey base of 

snowshoe hare. In the Rocky Mountains primary vegetation that contributes to lynx habitat is lodgepole pine, subalpine 

fir, and Englemann spruce. Secondary vegetation that, when interspersed within subalpine forests, may also contribute 

to lynx habitat, includes cool, moist Douglas-fir, grand fir, western larch, and aspen forest. Dry forest types (ponderosa 

pine, climax lodgepole pine) do not provide lynx habitat. Primary elevations for lynx habitat are between 1500-2000 m. 

(4,920 – 6,560 ft.) elevation zones in the northern Rockies. 

Management Decision: A decision made by the BLM to manage public lands. Management decisions include both 

land use plan decisions and implementation decisions. 

Management Framework Plan (MFP): Planning decision document prepared before the effective date of the 

regulations implementing the land use planning provisions of the FLPMA, which establishes, for a given area of land, 

land-use allocations, coordination guidelines for multiple-use, and objectives to be achieved for each class of land use or 

protection. 

Management Opportunities: A component of the analysis of the management situation; actions or management 

directions that could be taken to resolve issues or management concerns. 

Mechanized Travel: Moving by means of mechanical devices such as a bicycle; not powered by a motor (source: 

Washington Office Instruction Memorandum No. 2010-056 and Draft Travel and Transportation Management Manual to 

replace Manual 8342, Release 8-20).

Medium or Moderate: An effect is readily apparent; there would be a measurable change than could result in a small 

but permanent change. 

Mid-Term: Effects lasting 5 to 10 years. 

Mill: A plant in which ore is treated for the recovery of valuable minerals or valuable minerals are concentrated into a 

smaller bulk for shipping to a smelter or other reduction works. 

Mine: An opening or excavation in the earth for extracting minerals. 

Mineral: Any solid or fluid inorganic substance that can be extracted from the earth for profit. 

Mineral Entry: The filing of a claim on public land to obtain the right to any minerals it may contain. 

Mineral Estate: The ownership of minerals, including rights necessary for access, exploration, development, mining, 

ore dressing, and transportation operations. 

Mineral Materials: Materials such as common varieties of sand, stone, gravel, pumice, pumicite, and clay, that are not 

obtainable under the mining or leasing laws but that can be acquired under the Mineral Materials Act of 1947, as 

amended. 

Mineral Withdrawal: A formal order that withholds federal lands and minerals from entry under the Mining Law of 

1872 and closes the area to mineral location (staking mining claims) and development. 

Minimize: To reduce the adverse impact of an operation to the lowest practical level. 

Mining Claim: A parcel of land that a miner takes and holds for mining purposes, having acquired the right of 

possession by complying with the Mining Law and local laws and rules. A single mining claim may contain as many 
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adjoining locations as the locator may make or buy. The four categories of mining claims are: lode, placer, millsite, and 

tunnel site. 

Mining District: An area, usually designated by name, with described or understood boundaries, where minerals are 

found and mined under rules prescribed by the miners, consistent with the Mining Law of 1872. 

Mitigation Measures: Methods or procedures that reduce or lessen the impacts of an action. Mitigation measures and 

conservation actions are Best Management Practices (BMPs), operating procedures, or design features that have been 

developed to avoid, minimize, rectify, reduce, or compensate for potentially significant adverse environmental impacts 

associated with surface-disturbing or disruptive activities.

Monitoring Plan: The process of tracking the implementation of land use plan decisions and collecting and assessing 

data/information necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of land use planning decisions. 

Modification: A change in a Plan of Operations that requires some level of review by BLM because it exceeds what 

was described in the approved Plan of Operations. 

Modification (Oil and Gas): A change to the provision of a lease stipulation either temporarily or for the term of the 

lease. 

Monitoring Plan: The process of tracking the implementation of land use plan decisions. 

Motorized Travel: Moving by means of vehicles that are propelled by motors, such as cars, trucks, off-highway 

vehicles (OHV), motorcycles, snowmobiles, and boats (source: Washington Office Instruction Memorandum No. 2010-

056 and Draft Travel and Transportation Management Manual to replace Manual 8342, Release 8-20).

Motorized Vehicles: Synonymous with off-highway vehicle (OHV). Examples of this type of vehicle include allterrain vehicle (ATV), utility type vehicle (UTV), sport utility vehicle (SUV), motorcycle, and snowmobile. (source: 

BLM Travel and Transportation Management Handbook 8342-1.)

All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV): A wheeled vehicle other than a snowmobile, which is defined as having a wheelbase 

and chassis of fifty (50) inches in width or less, steered with handlebars, generally having a dry weight of 800 

pounds or less, travels on three or more low-pressure tires, and with a seat designed to be straddled by the operator.

Motorcycle: Motorized vehicles with two tires and with a seat designed to be straddled by the operator.

Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV): OHV is synonymous with Off-Road Vehicles (ORV). ORV is defined in 43 CFR 

8340.0-5 (a): Off-road vehicle means any motorized vehicle capable or, or designed for, travel on or immediately 

over land, water, or other natural terrain, excluding: 1) Any non-amphibious registered motorboat; 2) Any military, 

fire, emergency, or law enforcement vehicle while being used for emergency purposes; 3) Any vehicle whose use is 

expressly authorized by the authorized officer, or otherwise officially approved; 4) Vehicles in official use; and 5) 

Any combat or combat support vehicle when used in times of national defense emergencies. OHVs generally 

include dirt motorcycles, dune buggies, jeeps, 4-wheel drive vehicles, SUVs, over-the-snow vehicles, UTVs and 

ATVs.

Over-the-Snow Vehicle: An over-snow vehicle is defined as a motor vehicle that is designed for use over snow 

that runs on a track or tracks and/or a ski or skis, while in use over snow. An over-snow vehicle does not include 

machinery used strictly for the grooming of non-motorized trails.

Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV): A street legal, high clearance vehicle used primarily on-highway but designed to be 

capable of off-highway travel.

Utility Type (or Terrain) Vehicle (UTV): Any recreational motor vehicle other than an ATV, motorbike or 

snowmobile designed for and capable of travel over designated unpaved roads, traveling on four (4) or more lowpressure tires, maximum width less than seventy-four (74) inches, usually a maximum weight less than two 
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793

thousand (2,000) pounds, or having a wheelbase of ninety-four (94) inches or less. Utility type vehicle does not 

include vehicles specially designed to carry a person with disabilities.

Multiple Use: Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the term “multiple use” means the 

management of the public lands and their various resource values so that they are utilized in the combination that will 

best meet the present and future needs of the American people; making the most judicious use of the land for some or all 

of these resources or related services over areas large enough to provide sufficient latitude for periodic adjustments in 

use to conform to changing needs and conditions; the use of some land for less than all of the resources; a combination of 

balanced and diverse resource uses that takes into account the long-term needs of future generations for renewable and 

non-renewable resources, including, but not limited to, recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, 

and natural scenic, scientific and historical values; and harmonious and coordinated management of the various resources 

without permanent impairment of the productivity of the land and the quality of the environment with consideration 

being given to the relative values of the resources and not necessarily to the combination of uses that will give the 

greatest economic return or the greatest unit output.” (43 U.S.C. 1702, Sec. 103(c))

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): The allowable concentrations of air pollutants in the ambient 

(public outdoor) air. National ambient air quality standards are based on the air quality criteria and divided into primary 

standards (allowing an adequate margin of safety to protect the public health) and secondary standards (allowing an 

adequate margin of safety to protect the public welfare). Welfare is defined as including (but not limited to) effects on 

soils, water, crops, vegetation, human-made materials, animals, wildlife, weather, visibility, climate, and hazards to 

transportation, as well as effects on economic values and on personal comfort and well-being. 

National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969: An Act that encourages productive and enjoyable harmony 

between man and his environment and promotes efforts to prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere 

and stimulate the health and welfare of man; enriches the understanding or the ecological systems and natural resources 

important to the Nation, and establishes the Council on Environmental Quality. 

National Register of Historical Places: A register of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects, significant in 

American history, architecture, archaeology and culture, established by the “Historic Preservation Act” of 1966 and 

maintained by the Secretary of the Interior. 

National Wild and Scenic Rivers System: A system of nationally designated rivers and their immediate environments 

that have outstanding scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, and other similar values and are

preserved in a free-flowing condition. The system consists of three types of streams: (1) recreation—rivers or sections of 

rivers that are readily accessible by road or railroad and that may have some development along their shorelines and may 

have undergone some impoundments or diversion in the past, (2) scenic—rivers or sections of rivers free of 

impoundments with shorelines or watersheds still largely undeveloped but accessible in places by roads, and (3) wild—

rivers or sections of rivers free of impoundments and generally inaccessible except by trails, with watersheds or 

shorelines essentially primitive and waters unpolluted. 

Negligible: An effect at the lower level of detection; there would be no measurable change. Effects may not be readily 

noticeable. 

Neutral: An effect that is neither beneficial nor adverse to a specific resource or resource use. 

No Surface Occupancy: A fluid minerals leasing constraint that prohibits occupancy or disturbance on all or part of the 

lease surface to protect special values or uses. Lessees may exploit the fluid mineral resources under the leases restricted 

by this constraint through use of directional drilling from sites outside the area. 

Noise: Sound that is loud, unpleasant, unexpected, or otherwise undesirable.

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): The standard used by federal statistical agencies in 

classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the 

U.S. business economy. The NAICS was developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB), and adopted in 1997 to replace the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system and to allow for a high level 

of comparability in business statistics among the North American countries.
Glossary HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

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Noxious Weeds: A plant species designated by federal or state law as generally possessing one or more of the following 

characteristics: aggressive and difficult to manage; parasitic; a carrier or host of serious insects or disease; or nonnative, 

new, or not common to the United States. 

Nutrient Cycling: The circulation of chemical elements such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and phosphorus in specific 

pathways from the abiotic (not involving or produced by organisms) portions of the environment into organic substances 

in plants and animals and then back into abiotic forms. 

Objective: A description of a desired condition for a resource. Objectives can be quantified and measured and, where 

possible, have established time frames for achievement. 

Obligate: Essential, necessary, unable to exist in any other state, mode, or relationship. 

Obligate Wetland (OBL): Plant species that occur almost always (estimated probability >99%) under natural 

conditions in wetlands or riparian zones. 

Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV): Any motorized vehicle capable of, or designed for, travel on or immediately over land, 

water, or other natural terrain, excluding: (1) Any non-amphibious registered motorboat; (2) Any military, fire, 

emergency, or law enforcement vehicle while being used for emergency purposes; (3) Any vehicle whose use is 

expressly authorized by the authorized officer, or otherwise officially approved; (4) Vehicles in official use; and (5) Any 

combat or combat support vehicle when used in times of national defense emergencies. OHVs generally include dirt 

motorcycles, dune buggies, jeeps, four-wheel drive vehicles, snowmobiles, and ATVs.

Old Forest Structure: Physical forest or woodland characteristics that contribute to the structure, composition or 

function of forested stands for a particular forest type. These characteristics include large and old tree components, 

accumulations of dead wood components such as standing snags and/or downed logs, occurrence of climax plant species 

or seral trees with a common decadent attributes such as broken or deformed tops and rotten boles, wide variation in tree 

age classes and stocking levels, and multiple canopy layers. 

Old-Growth: Forested stands in late successional stages of development meeting the main characteristics or old forest 

structures that are described by the forest type for the East-side Montana Zone in Old-Growth Forest Types of the 

Northern Region (USFS 1992).

Open: Generally denotes that an area is available for a particular use or uses. Refer to specific program definitions 

found in law, regulations, or policy guidance for application to individual programs. 

Open Road: Open year-round to public and administrative uses. 

Open Road with Restrictions: Open to public and administrative uses with seasonal and/or vehicle type limitations. 

Opening Order: Returning land to the operation of some or all of the public land laws. Normally done at the same 

time as revocation, it opens lands to the operation or partial operation of the public land laws. An opening order may be 

a part of the revocation order and need not be a separate document. 

Operator: Any person who has taken formal responsibility for the operations conducted on the leased lands. 

Ore: A mineral deposit of high enough quality to be mined at a profit. 

Outstandingly Remarkable (River) Values: Values among those listed in Section 1(b) of the Wild and Scenic Rivers 

Act are “scenic, recreational, geological, fish and wildlife, historical, cultural, or other similar values. . . .” Other similar 

values which may be considered include botanical, hydrological, paleontological, or scientific. Professional judgment is 

used to determine whether values exist to an outstandingly remarkable degree. 

Over-Snow Vehicle: An over-snow vehicle is defined as a motor vehicle that is designed for use over snow that runs on 

a track or tracks and/or a ski or skis, while in use over snow. An over-snow vehicle does not include machinery used 

strictly for the grooming of non-motorized trails.
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795

Overstory: The layer of foliage in a forest canopy, often the uppermost layer(s) consisting of the crowns of trees or 

shrubs. 

Paleontological Resources (Fossils): The physical remains of plants and animals preserved in soils and sedimentary 

rock formations. Paleontological resources are important for understanding past environments, environmental change, 

and the evolution of life. 

Paleontology: A science dealing with the life forms of past geological periods as known from fossil remains. 

Parent Mineral (Soil): The unconsolidated more or less chemically weathered mineral or organic matter from which 

the upper level of the soil profile has developed. 

Passport in Time: Passport in Time (PIT) is a volunteer archaeology and historic preservation program. PIT volunteers 

work with professional archaeologists and historians throughout the U.S. on such diverse activities as archaeological 

survey and excavation, rock art restoration, survey, archival research, historic structure restoration, oral history 

gathering, and analysis and curation of artifacts.

Patent: The instrument by which the federal government conveys title to the public lands. 

Perennial Stream: A stream that normally has water in its channel at all times.

Permit: A short-term (generally under 3 years), revocable authorization to use public lands for specific purposes. BLM 

issues permits under 43 CFR 2910. For grazing authorizations issued under 43 CFR 4100, permits are normally issued 

for 10 years.

Permitted Use: The forage allocated by, or under the guidance of, an applicable land use plan for livestock grazing in 

an allotment under a permit or lease. Expressed in AUMs. 

Permittee: Holder of a valid permit that authorizes certain uses of the public lands (e.g., for grazing). 

Permittee (Grazing): Holder of a valid permit that authorizes grazing use of the public lands within the grazing district. 

Perpetual Exclusive Easement: A perpetual exclusive easement is acquired by the United States to use land of another

for a particular purpose. An exclusive road easement grants control to the United States and may allow it to authorize 

third party use and set road use rules.

When obtaining a road easement, the BLM’s preferred option is to gain an exclusive easement in order to obtain the right 

for the general public to use and access the road.

Petroglyph: A figure, design, or indentation carved, abraded, or pecked into a rock. 

Physical Weed Treatment: These are treatments which use manual labor, mechanical equipment, or fire, such as handpulling, mowing or tilling, and prescribed burning. 

Pictograph: A figure or design painted onto a rock. 

Placer: An alluvial deposit of sand and gravel containing valuable minerals such as gold. 

Placer Mining: A method of mining in which the overburden is removed to expose gold-bearing gravel deposits 

beneath. The gravel is then sluiced to separate the gold. 

Plan: A document that contains a set of comprehensive, long range decisions concerning the use and management of 

Bureau administered resources in a specific geographic area. 
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Planned Sale Quantity (PSQ): The allowable forest harvest level that can be maintained without decline over the long 

term, if the schedule of harvests and regeneration are followed. PSQ is an estimate of potential production rather than a 

specific level of forest product volume that would be offered every decade. 

Planning Area: A geographical area for which land use and resource management plans are developed and maintained. 

Within the HiLine planning area, the BLM administers approximately 2,441,000 acres of public land surface and 

3,764,000 acres of federal mineral estate in Blaine, Chouteau, Glacier, Hill, Liberty, Phillips, Toole, and Valley counties.

Planning Criteria: The standards, rules, and other factors developed by managers and interdisciplinary teams for their 

use in forming judgments about decision making, analysis, and data collection during planning. Planning criteria 

streamline and simplify the resource management planning actions. 

Planning Decision (Land Use Plan Decision): Establishes desired outcomes and actions needed to achieve them. 

Decisions are reached using the BLM planning process. When they are presented to the public as proposed decisions, 

they can be protested to the BLM Director. They are not appealable to Interior Board of Land Appeals. 

Population: Within a species, a distinct group of individuals that tend to mate only with members of the group. 

Because of generations of inbreeding, members of a population tend to have similar genetic characteristics. 

Potential Fossil Yield Classification: Occurrences of paleontological resources are closely tied to the geologic units 

that contain them. The probability for finding paleontological resources can be broadly predicted from the geologic units 

present at or near the surface. Therefore, geologic mapping can be used for assessing the potential for the occurrence of 

paleontological resources.

Using the Potential Fossil Yield Classification (PFYC) system, geologic units are classified based on the relative 

abundance of vertebrate fossils or scientifically significant invertebrate or plant fossils and their sensitivity to adverse 

impacts, with a higher class number indicating a higher potential. The five classes range from Class 1 – Very Low to 

Class 5 – Very High.

Potential Natural Vegetation: The vegetation that would become established if all successional sequences were 

completed without interferences by man under the present environmental conditions. 

Power Site Classification: A classification made by the Federal Power Commission that is a segregation against the 

operation of the public land laws for lands that are needed or have potential for power projects and associated 

transmission lines. Lands classified to benefit transmission lines are open to the operation of the public land laws subject 

to their use for transmission lines. 

Power Site Reserve: A reservation of public lands that have potential value for power development. 

Precambrian: Pertaining to the earliest era of geological history, extending from 4.5 billion to 540 million years ago 

and encompassing 7/8 of the earth’s history. Just before the end of the Precambrian, complex multicellular organisms, 

including animals, evolved. 

Precious Metals: A general term for gold, silver, or any of the minerals of the platinum group. 

Pre-Commercial Thinning: A thinning that does not yield trees of commercial value, usually designed to reduce 

stocking in order to concentrate growth on the more desirable trees or to meet desired vegetation and/or fuel loading 

conditions. 

Prehistoric: Refers to the period wherein Native American cultural activities took place which were not yet influenced 

by contact with historic nonnative culture(s). 

Prescribed Fire: The planned ignition of fire in a planned area; implementation must occur under specified conditions 

to meet specific management objectives. 
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797

Prescribed Fire Burn Plan: A plan required for each fire application ignited by management. Plans are documents 

prepared by qualified personnel, approved by the agency administrator, and include criteria for the conditions under 

which the fire will be conducted (a prescription).

Prescription Livestock Grazing (Grazing): Grazing use authorized on land designated or not designated for livestock 

grazing designed to accomplish a specific purpose. For example, authorizing sheep and goats to graze a piece of land as 

a biological control agent to treat noxious weeds. Prescription grazing would normally be authorized on a temporary 

nonrenewable basis. 

Prevention of Significant Deterioration: A regulatory program based not on the absolute levels of pollution allowable 

in the atmosphere but on the amount by which a legally defined baseline condition will be allowed to deteriorate in a 

given area. Under this program, geographic areas are divided into three classes, each allowing different increases in 

nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide concentrations. 

Prey Base: Populations and types of prey species available to predators. 

Primitive and Unconfined Recreation: Non-motorized, non-mechanized and undeveloped types of recreational 

activities. 

Primitive Road: A linear route managed for use by four-wheel drive or high-clearance vehicles. These routes do not 

customarily meet any BLM road design standards.

Primitive Route: Any transportation linear feature located within a WSA or lands with wilderness characteristics 

designated for protection by a land use plan and not meeting the wilderness inventory road definition. 

Priority Habitats: Priority habitats would include habitat for all special status species as well as riparian areas, dry 

savannah forest, special habitats including caves, cliffs, snags, and down woody material, sagebrush, bitterbrush 

communities and mountain mahogany communities. 

Priority Species: Priority species are those wildlife, fish or plant species that the BLM has determined to be unique or 

significant based on at least one of the following factors: density, diversity, population size, public interest, remnant 

character, or age. 

Private Exchange: A land exchange between the federal government and any landowner other than a state. 

Probable Sale Quantity (PSQ): A best assessment of the average amount of timber likely to be available for sale 

annually in a planning area.

Project Plan: A type of implementation plan. A project plan typically addresses individual projects or several related 

projects. Examples of project plans include prescribed burn plans, trail plans, and recreation site plans. 

Project Area (Minerals): The area of land upon which an operator conducts mining operations, including the area 

needed for building or maintaining of roads, transmission lines, pipelines, or other means of access. 

Project Area (Vegetation): An area of land within some type of management activity would occur and encompasses a 

region defined by logical boundaries such as: watersheds, ridges, highways, or ownership blocks of BLM lands. The 

project area can be both the analysis area and a starting point to determine where treatments or activities should occur, 

and includes the area needed for supporting structures and activities such as roads, transmission lines, or pipelines. 

Proper Functioning Condition (PFC): Ecosystems are in PFC when they function within their historic range of 

variability. 

Proposed Action: A project or set of activities that a federal agency intends to implement, as defined in NEPA 

regulations. 
Glossary HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

798

Proposed Planning Scenario: Using comments received during the initial scoping period, the BLM interdisciplinary 

team developed the “Proposed Planning Scenario,” to describe possible management prescriptions and goals for 

individual programs. 

Protest: Application for review by a higher administrative level. 

Public Domain Lands: Vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved public lands, or public lands withdrawn by Executive 

Order 6910 of November 26, 1934, as amended, or Executive Order 6964 of February 5, 1935, as amended, and not 

otherwise withdrawn or reserved, or public lands within grazing districts established under Section 1 of the Act of June 

28, 1934 (45 Stat. 1269), as amended, and not otherwise withdrawn or reserved.

Public Involvement: Any process designed to broaden the information base upon which agency decisions are made by 

informing the public about BLM activities, plans, and decisions to encourage public understanding about the 

participation in the planning processes which lead to final decisionmaking. 

Public Lands: Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the term “public lands” means any land 

and interest in land owned by the United States within the several States and administered by the Secretary of the Interior 

through the Bureau of Land Management, without regard to how the United States acquired ownership.” (43 U.S.C. 

1702, Sec. 103(e))

Public Land Laws: A body of laws that regulates the administration of the public lands and the resources thereon. 

Public Land Order (PLO): Creating, continuing, modifying, or revoking a withdrawal or reservation that has been 

issued by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to his delegations of authority. 

Public Propose: A use in which the public has an interest, affecting its safety, health, morale, and welfare, but not 

including use for habitation, cultivation, trade, or manufacturing. 

Public Value: An asset held by, service performed for, or benefit accruing to the people at large. 

Quarry: An open or surface working, usually for the extraction of stone, slate, limestone, etc. 

Quarry Site: Place where minerals occur which were a source of raw material for prehistoric/historic industries. 

Rangeland: Land used for grazing by livestock and big game animals on which vegetation is dominated by grasses, 

grass-like plants, forbs, or shrubs. 

Raptor: Bird of prey with sharp talons and strongly curved beaks such as hawks, owls, vultures, and eagles. 

Reach: A segment of stream. 

Reasonably Foreseeable Development Scenario: The prediction of the type and amount of oil and gas activity that 

would occur in a given area. The prediction is based on geologic factors, past history of drilling, projected demand for 

oil and gas, and industry interest. 

Reclamation: Reclamation is the reconstruction of topographic, soil, and plant conditions after disturbance, which may 

not be identical to the predisturbance site, but which permits the degraded land mass to function adequately in the 

ecosystem of which it was and is a part (Munshower 1994).

Reclamation Project: A water development and irrigation project of the Bureau of Reclamation. 

Reclamation Withdrawals: 

• First Form: A reclamation withdrawal of public lands that are or may be needed for the building and 

maintaining a reclamation project. 
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• Second Form: A reclamation withdrawal of public lands susceptible to irrigation form a reclamation project. 

• The distinction between the first and second forms of withdrawals has been eliminated, and all such 

withdrawals are called reclamation withdrawals. 

Record of Decision: A document signed by a responsible official recording a decision that was preceded by the 

preparing of an environmental impact statement. 

Recreation and Public Purposes (R&PP) Act: Authorizes the sale or lease of BLM lands for recreational or public 

purposes to State and local governments and to qualified nonprofit organizations. Examples of typical uses under the act 

are historic monument sites, campgrounds, schools, fire houses, law enforcement facilities, municipal facilities, landfills, 

hospitals, parks, and fairgrounds.

Department of the Interior regulations for the Recreation and Public Purposes Act are found in Title 43 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations (43 CFR), Parts 2740 (Sales) and 2912 (Leases).

Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS): A framework for stratifying and defining classes of outdoor recreation 

environments, activities, and experience opportunities. The settings, activities, and opportunities for obtaining 

experiences are arranged along a continuum or spectrum divided into six classes-primitive, semi-primitive nonmotorized, semi-primitive motorized, roaded natural, rural and urban. 

Relict: A remnant or fragment of the vegetation of an area that remains from a former period when the vegetation was 

more widely distributed. 

Relinquished Allotment (Grazing): An allotment where an existing permittee or lessee gives up his or her permit or 

lease causing the allotment to become unleased. 

Research Natural Area: An area that illustrates or typifies for research or educational purposes, the important forest 

and range types in each field office, as well as other plant communities that have special or unique characteristics of 

scientific interest and importance. 

Reservation: A “setting aside” or dedication of lands for the federal government for a specific public purpose. 

"Reserved" land is not necessarily withdrawn. A permanent withdrawal dedicated to a specific public purpose.

Reserve Common Allotment: A unit of public land that will not have term grazing permits issued. Such an allotment 

would only be grazed on a temporary nonrenewable basis. The use of these allotments would be to provide temporary 

grazing to rest other areas following wildfire, habitat treatments, or to allow for more rapid attainment of rangeland 

health. The allotment must be of sufficient size to be managed as a discrete unit. Resource Reserve Allotments should 

be distributed throughout the planning area. 

Reserves (Mineral): Known mineral deposits that are recoverable under present conditions but are as yet undeveloped. 

Reservoir (Oil and Gas): A naturally occurring, underground container of oil and gas, usually formed by deformation 

of strata and changes in porosity. 

Resource Advisory Council (RAC): A council established by the Secretary of the Interior to provide advice or 

recommendations to BLM management. 

Resource Management Plan (RMP): A land use plan as prescribed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 

which establishes, for a given area of land, land-use allocations, coordination guidelines for multiple-use, objectives and 

actions to be achieved. 

Retirement of Grazing Privileges: Ending livestock grazing on a specific area of land. See also Grazing 

Relinquishment.
Glossary HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

800

Revision: The process of completely rewriting the land use plan due to changes in the planning area affecting major 

portions of the plan or the entire plan.

Revocation: The action that cancels a withdrawal but does not necessarily "open" the lands to application or entry.

Right-of-Way: A permit or an easement which authorizes the use of public lands for certain specified purposes, 

commonly for pipelines, roads, telephone lines, electric lines, reservoirs, etc.; also, the lands covered by such an 

easement or permit.

Right-of-way Corridor: A parcel of land that has been identified by law, Secretarial order, through a land use plan or 

by other management decision as being the preferred location for existing and future right-of-way grants and suitable to 

accommodate one type of right-of-way or one or more rights-of-way which are similar, identical or compatible.

Riparian Area: A form of wetland transition between permanently saturated wetlands and upland areas. Riparian areas 

exhibit vegetation or physical characteristics that reflect the influence of permanent surface or subsurface water. Typical 

riparian areas include lands along, adjacent to, or contiguous with perennially and intermittently flowing rivers and 

streams, glacial potholes, and the shores of lakes and reservoirs with stable water levels. Excluded are ephemeral areas 

or washes that lack vegetation dependent upon free water in the soil.

River Designation: The process whereby rivers are added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System by an act of 

Congress or by administrative action of the Secretary of the Interior with regard to state-designated rivers under Section 

2(a)(ii) of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. 

Road: A linear route declared a road by the owner, managed for use by low-clearance vehicles having four or more 

wheels, and maintained for regular and continuous use.

Road Density: Number of miles of open road per square mile. 

Roadless: Refers to the absence of roads which have been improved and maintained by mechanical means to insure 

relatively regular and continuous use. A way maintained solely by the passage of vehicles does not constitute a road. 

Rock Art: Petroglyphs or pictographs. 

Rock Outcrop: Consists of exposures of bare bedrock other than lava flows and rock-lined pits. Also, areas of highly 

flocculated, salt affected, clays that support little or no vegetation.

Runoff: The water that flows on the land surface from an area in response to rainfall or snowmelt. 

Rural Fire District: An organization established to provide fire protection to a designated geographic area outside of 

areas under municipal fire protection. 

Rural Intermix: Any area wherein residences and other developments are scattered and intermingled with vegetative 

fuels such as forest, range, farm land, or native vegetation. See also Wildland Urban Interface.

Sage-Grouse Habitat - General Habitat Areas: Areas with or without ongoing or imminent impacts containing sagegrouse habitat outside of the priority areas. Management actions would maintain habitat for sustainable sage-grouse 

populations to promote movement and genetic diversity. Areas are delineated based on sage-grouse habitat. 

Sage-Grouse Habitat - Protection Priority Areas: Areas with limited impacts containing substantial and high quality 

sage-grouse habitat that support sustainable sage-grouse populations. Management actions would emphasize the 

protection and enhancement of sustainable sage-grouse populations. Areas are delineated by using “key,” “core” and 

connectivity data/maps and other resource information. 

Sage-Grouse Habitat - Restoration Areas: Areas with ongoing or imminent impacts containing substantial and high 

quality sage-grouse habitat that historically supported sustainable sage-grouse populations. Management actions would 
HiLine Draft RMP/EIS Glossary

801

emphasize restoration for the purpose of establishing or restoring sustainable sage-grouse populations. Areas are 

delineated by using “key,” “core” and connectivity data/maps and other resource information.

Salable Minerals: Common variety minerals on the public lands, such as sand and gravel, which are used mainly for 

construction and are disposed of by sales or special permits to local governments.

Salmonid: Any fish of the Salmonidae family, including salmon and trout.

Scale: Refers to the geographic area and data resolution under examination in an assessment or planning effort.

Scenic Quality: The degree of harmony, contrast and variety within a landscape.

Scenic River: A river or section of a river that is free of impoundments and whose shorelines are largely undeveloped 

but accessible in places by roads.

Scoping: The process of identifying the range of issues, management concerns, preliminary alternatives, and other 

components of an environmental impact statement or land-use planning document. It involves both internal and public 

viewpoints.

Seasonal Restriction: A fluid minerals leasing constraint that prohibits surface use during specified time periods to 

protect identified resource values. The constraint does not apply to the operation and maintenance of production 

facilities unless analysis demonstrates that such constraints are needed and that less stringent, project- specific 

constraints would be insufficient.

Section 7 Consultations: The requirement of Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act that all federal agencies consult 

with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service if a proposed action might affect a 

federally listed species or its critical habitat.

Section 106 Compliance: The requirement of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act that any project 

funded, licensed, permitted, or assisted by the federal government be reviewed for impacts to significant historic 

properties and that the State Historic Preservation Officer and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation be allowed 

to comment on a project.

Security Habitat: refers to the protection inherent in any situation that allows elk to remain in a defined area despite an 

increase in stress or disturbance associated with hunting or other human activities.

Sediment: Soil, rock particles and organic or other debris carried from one place to another by wind, water or gravity.

Sedimentary Rock: Rock resulting from consolidation of loose sediment that has accumulated in layers.

Sedimentation: The process or action of depositing sediment. 

Segregation: Any action such as a withdrawal or allowed application (exchange) that suspends the operation of the 

general public land laws; removing lands from the operation of part or all the public land mineral laws. 

Sensitive Species: Species designated by the State Director, usually in cooperation with the State agency responsible for 

managing the species and State Natural heritage programs, as sensitive. They are those species that: (1) could become 

endangered in or extirpated from a State, or within a significant portion of its distribution; (2) are under status review by 

the USFWS; (3) are undergoing significant current or predicted downward trends in habitat capability that would reduce 

a species’ existing distribution; (4) are undergoing significant current or predicted downward trends in population or 

density such that federal listed, proposed, candidate, or State listed status may become necessary; (5) typically have 

small and widely dispersed populations; (6) inhabit ecological refugia or other specialized or unique habitats; or (7) are 

State listed but which may be better conserved through application of BLM sensitive species status.

Seral: A temporal and intermediate condition pertaining to the successional stages of biotic communities. 
Glossary HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

802

Shaft: A vertical or inclined opening to an underground mine. 

Shallow Soils: Soils that are less than 20 inches to bedrock. 

Short-Term: Effects lasting less than 5 years. 

Shrub: A low, woody plant, usually with several stems, that may provide food and/or cover for animals. 

Significant: An effect that is analyzed in the context of the proposed action to determine the degree or magnitude of 

importance of the effect, either beneficial or adverse. The degree of significance can be related to other actions with 

individually insignificant but cumulatively significant impacts. 

Significant Paleontological Resource (syn. Significant Fossil Resource): Any paleontological resource that is 

considered to be of scientific interest, including most vertebrate fossil remains and traces, and certain rare or unusual 

invertebrate and plant fossils. A significant paleontological resource is considered to be scientifically important because 

it is a rare or previously unknown species, it is of high quality and well-preserved, it preserves a previously unknown 

anatomical or other characteristic, provides new information about the history of life on earth, or has identified 

educational or recreational value. Paleontological resources that may be considered to not have paleontological 

significance include those that lack provenience or context, lack physical integrity because of decay or natural erosion, or 

that are overly redundant or are otherwise not useful for research.

Vertebrate fossil remains and traces include bone, scales, scutes, skin impressions, burrows, tracks, tail drag marks, 

vertebrate coprolites (feces), gastroliths (stomach stones), or other physical evidence of past vertebrate life or activities.

Slash: Forest residues such as branches, bark, tops, cull logs, broken or uprooted trees, and/or stumps that can be left on 

the ground or in piles after logging, vegetative or fuels treatments, or land use activities such as road construction.

Slope: The degree of deviation of a surface from the horizontal.

Soil Compaction: A layer of dense soil caused by repeated impacts on or disturbances of the soil surface. Compaction 

becomes a problem when it begins to limit plant growth, water infiltration, or nutrient cycling processes.

Soil Productivity: The capacity of a soil to produce a plant or sequence of plants under a system of management. 

Solar Insolation: A measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time. It is commonly 

expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter (W/m2) or kilowatt-hours per square meter per day 

(kWh/m2/day).

Solitude: (1) the state of being alone or remote from others; isolation; (2) a lonely or secluded place. 

Sound: A vibratory disturbance created by a vibrating object, which, when transmitted by pressure waves through a 

medium such as air, is capable of being detected by a receiving mechanism, such as the human ear or a microphone.

Source Water Protection Plan: A management plan, usually developed by local communities, that addresses public 

water system concerns based on information contained within Source Water Delineation and Assessment Reports. 

Special Recreation Management Area (SRMA): An identified area of BLM land managed to provide entire recreation 

products (i.e., services, settings, and activity and outcome opportunities) in response to identifiable significant customer 

desires. Investments in facilities and/or visitor assistance are authorized within SRMAs. 

Special Status Species: Includes proposed species, listed species, and candidate species under the Endangered Species 

Act; State-listed species; and BLM State Director-designated sensitive species. 

Species: A unit of classification of plants and animals consisting of the largest and most inclusive array of sexually 

reproducing and cross-fertilizing individuals, which share a common gene pool. 
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803

Species Diversity: The number, different kinds of, and relative abundances of species present in a given area. 

Split Estate: Split estate is a land status term which applies when the surface is patented or deeded into non-federal 

ownership, while the federal government retains the mineral rights. Reverse split estate applies when the federal 

government transferred both the surface and mineral estate into non-federal ownership, but the surface estate was 

subsequently returned while the minerals, or a portion of them, were retained by the private landowner.

Stand: A community of trees or other vegetation uniform in composition, constitution, spatial arrangement, or condition 

to be distinguishable from adjacent communities. 

Stand Composition: The proportion of each tree species in a stand expressed as a percentage of all trees, basal area or 

volume. 

Standard: A description of the physical and biological conditions or degree of function required for healthy, sustainable 

lands (e.g., land health standards). To be expressed as a desired outcome or goal. 

State Exchange: A land exchange between the federal government and a state. 

Steep Slopes: Slopes with a gradient between 20 and 60 percent (USDA-SCS 1993).

Stipulations: Requirements that are part of the terms of a mineral lease. Some stipulations are standard on all federal 

leases. Other stipulations may be applied to the lease at the discretion of the surface management agency to protect 

valuable surface resources and uses. 

Strategic Plan: A plan that establishes the overall direction for the BLM. This plan is guided by the requirements of 

the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, covers a 5-year period, and is updated every 3 years. It is 

consistent with FLPMA and other laws affecting the public lands. 

Stream Reach: A specified length of a stream or channel. 

Structure (Stream Channel): Any object, usually large, in a stream channel that controls water movement. 

Structure (of Forest Vegetation): The horizontal and vertical distribution of plants in a stand, including height, 

diameter, crown layers, and stems of trees, shrubs, herbaceous understory, snags and coarse woody debris. 

Substrate: The mineral or organic material that forms the bed of a stream; the base upon which an organism lives; the 

surface on which a plant or animal grows or is attached. 

Subsequent Well Operations: A proposal for further well operations must be approved by the authorized officer prior 

to commencing operations to redrill, deepen, perform casing repairs, plug-back, alter casing, perform nonroutine 

fracturing jobs, recomplete in a different interval, perform water shut off, commingling production between intervals 

and/or conversion to injection. Unless additional surface disturbance is involved and if the operations conform to the 

standard of prudent operating practice, prior approval is not required for routine fracturing or acidizing jobs, or 

recompletion in the same interval. No prior approval or a subsequent report is required for well cleanout work, routine 

well maintenance, or bottom hole pressure surveys.

Sub-surface Ownership Codes: GIS datasets created for the purpose of spatially displaying subsurface minerals on the 

1:100,000 map series for BLM in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. 

Coal Only: The federal government reserved its right to explore and excavate coal according to standards, 

regulations and statutes. Remaining subsurface has been patented out.

All Minerals: The federal government reserved all subsurface mineral rights, including but not limited to oil, gas, 

and coal. This designation is used only when the federal government has reservations on all subsurface, and is not a 

category that contains any or all of the other listed categories. 
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804

Oil and Gas Only: The federal government reserved its right to explore and drill for oil and gas according to 

standards, regulations and statutes. Remaining subsurface has been patented out.

Oil, Gas, and Coal Only: The federal government reserved its right to explore for and remove coal, oil and gas 

according to the standards and regulations. Remaining subsurface has been patented out.

Other Minerals (Restricted Minerals): The federal government has retained a whole or partial interest in a specific 

mineral or group of minerals that are not listed as a separate category above (e.g., phosphate), or where the federal 

government has a certain percent interest in one or more minerals. This must be researched to establish the federal 

interest.

Succession: The replacement in time of one plant community with another. The prior plant community (or successional 

stage) creates conditions that area favorable for the establishment of the next stage. 

Suitability (for Wild and Scenic Rivers): Evaluation of eligible rivers for inclusion into the national Wild and Scenic 

River System by Determining the best use of the river corridor and the best method to protect the outstandingly 

remarkable values within the river corridor. 

Sundry Notice: A BLM Form 3160-5 that is used by leaseholders/operating rights owners to request approval to 

perform specific tasks related to a federal oil and gas lease. Sundry notices are also submitted once a task has been 

completed.

Surface-Disturbing or Disruptive Activities: For the purposes of applying mitigation measures, surface-disturbing and 

disruptive activities are defined below.

Surface-Disturbing Activities: The physical disturbance or removal of land surface and vegetation. Some 

examples of surface-disturbing activities include, but are not limited to, construction of roads, well pads, pipelines, 

powerlines, pits/reservoirs, facilities, recreation sites, and mining. Vegetation renovation treatments that involve 

soil penetration and/or substantial mechanical damage to plants (plowing, chiseling, chopping, etc.) are also surfacedisturbing activities.

Disruptive Activities: Those resource uses and activities that are likely to alter the behavior of, displace, or cause 

excessive stress to wildlife populations occurring at a specific location and/or time. In this context, disruptive 

activity(ies) refers to those actions that alter behavior or cause the displacement of wildlife such that reproductive 

success is negatively affected, or the physiological ability to cope with environmental stress is compromised. This 

term does not apply to the physical disturbance of the land surface, vegetation, or features. Examples of disruptive 

activities may include noise, vehicle traffic, or other human presence regardless of the activity. The term is used in 

conjunction with protecting wildlife during crucial life stages (e.g., breeding, nesting, birthing, etc.), although it 

could apply to any resource value. This definition is not intended to prohibit all activities or authorized uses. 

For example, emergency activities (e.g., fire suppression, search and rescue), rangeland monitoring, routine maintenance 

associated with an approved authorization, dispersed recreational activities (e.g., hunting, hiking) and livestock grazing 

are not considered surface-disturbing or disruptive activities.

Sustainability: The ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes and functions, biological diversity, and 

productivity over time. 

Sustained Yield: Maintenance of an annual or regular periodic output of a renewable resource from public land 

consistent with the principles of multiple use. 

Tailings: The waste matter from ore after the extraction of economically recoverable metals and minerals. 

Take: As defined by the Endangered Species Act, “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, capture, or collect, 

or attempt to engage in any such conduct.” 
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805

Terms and Conditions: Measures contained in livestock grazing permits and leases, which are determined by the 

authorized officer to be appropriate to achieve management and resource condition objectives for the public lands and 

other lands administered by the BLM, and to ensure conformance with Fundamentals of rangeland health and Standards 

and guidelines for grazing administration. 

Terrestrial Species: Ground-dwelling plants and animals. 

Thermal Cover: Vegetation or topography that prevents radiational heat loss, reduces wind chill during cold weather, 

and intercepts solar radiation during warm weather. 

Threatened Species: Any plant or animal species defined under the Endangered Species Act as likely to become 

endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range; listings are published in the 

Federal Register. 

Tools: Something that helps to accomplish the stated goal or action for a resource/resource use or program. Tools 

include: timing, duration of grazing, forage utilization, grazing rotation, deferment of grazing, stubble height, bank 

alteration, and structural features. 

Total Maximum Daily Load: An estimate of the total quantity of pollutants (from all sources: point, nonpoint, and 

natural) that may be allowed into waters without exceeding applicable water quality criteria.

Traditional Lifeway Values: Values that are important for maintaining a group’s traditional system of religious belief, 

cultural practice, or social interaction. A group’s shared traditional lifeway values are abstract, nonmaterial, ascribed 

ideas that cannot be discovered except through discussions with members of the group. These values may or may not be 

closely associated with definite locations. Traditional lifeway values sometimes imbue cultural resources with 

significance. They can be identified through consultation and considered through public participation during planning 

and environmental review. The BLM does not manage people’s values, beliefs, or social systems. 

Trail: Linear routes managed for human-powered, stock, or off-road vehicle forms of transportation, or for historical or 

heritage values. Trails are not generally managed for use by four-wheel drive or high-clearance vehicles.

Travel Management Areas: Polygons or delineated areas where a rational approach has been taken to classify areas 

open, closed, or limited, and have identified and/or designated network of roads, trails, ways, and other routes that 

provide for public access and travel across the planning area. All designed travel routes within travel management areas 

should have a clearly identified need and purpose as well as clearly defined activity types, modes of travel, and seasons 

or timeframes for allowable access or other limitations. 

Treatment Area: The specific area of land where the actual management activity, such as timber harvest, prescribed 

burning, construction, or other activity would occur. One or more treatment areas can be included in a project area 

which usually includes adjacent and/or surrounding areas that are not treated, and multiple activities could occur within a 

single treatment area, concurrently or over time. 

Unauthorized Development: An activity that physically alters the character of BLM land or vegetative resources. 

Examples include cultivation of the land and road or trail construction/realignment. 

Unauthorized Occupancy: Activities which result in full or part-time human occupancy or use. An example would be 

the construction, placement, occupancy, or assertion of ownership of a facility or structure (cabin, house, natural shelter, 

trailer, etc.) on BLM land. 

Unauthorized Use: Activities that do not appreciably alter the physical character of BLM land or vegetative resources. 

Some examples of unauthorized use include the abandonment of property or trash, enclosures, and use of existing roads, 

primitive roads and trails for purposes which require a use fee or right-of-way. 

Unavoidable Adverse Effects: Those that remain following the implementation of mitigation measures, and include 

effects for which there are no mitigation measures. 
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Understory: Vegetation (e.g., trees or shrubs) growing under the canopy formed by taller trees. 

Ungulates: Hoofed animals, including ruminants but also horses, tapirs, elephants, rhinoceroses, and swine. 

Unleased Allotments (Grazing): Areas of land designated and managed for livestock grazing which are currently not 

leased or permitted by a qualified applicant.

Unreserved Public Lands: Public lands not covered by a reservation or a withdrawal except by the federal orders of 

withdrawal. 

Uplands: Lands at higher elevations than alluvial plains or low stream terraces; all lands outside the riparian-wetland 

and aquatic zones. 

Use Authorization: Approval of a proposed use for land or resources on the prescribed form or document designated 

for such use; a document showing permission to use land or the resources thereon; a formalized grant pursuant to a 

request to use land or resources. 

User Day: Any calendar day, or portion thereof, for each individual accompanied or serviced by an operator or 

permittee on the public lands or related waters; synonymous with passenger day or participant day. 

Utility Type (or Terrain) Vehicle (UTV): Any recreational motor vehicle other than an all-terrain vehicle, motorbike, 

or snowmobile designed for and capable of travel over unpaved roads, traveling on four or more low-pressure tires, 

maximum width is less than 74 inches, usually a maximum weight less than 2,000 pounds, or having a wheelbase of 94 

inches or less. Utility type vehicles do not include vehicles specially designed to carry a person with disabilities.

Utilization (Rangeland): The proportion of the current year’s forage production that is consumed or destroyed by 

grazing animals. Utilization is usually expressed as a percentage. 

Vacant Available Lands (Grazing): Areas of land designated for livestock grazing which are not segregated into 

allotments. These lands may be formed into allotments if a qualified applicant applies for a lease or permit. 

Vacant Public Lands: Public lands that are unappropriated and unreserved and not within a withdrawal; lands that are 

not reserved except by the general orders of withdrawal. 

Valid Existing Rights: Locatable mineral development rights that existed when the Federal Land Policy and 

Management Act was enacted on October 21, 1976. Some areas are segregated from entry and location under the 

Mining Law to protect certain values or allow certain uses. Mining claims that existed as of the effective date of the 

segregation may still be valid if they can meet the test of discovery of a valuable mineral required under the Mining Law. 

Determining the validity of mining claims located in segregated lands requires BLM to conduct a validity examination 

and is called a “valid existing rights” determination. 

Vegetation Community: An assemblage of plant populations in a common spatial arrangement. 

Vegetation Manipulation: Alteration of vegetation by using fire, plowing, cutting, powered mechanical, or other 

means. 

Vegetation Type: A plant community with distinguishable characteristics described by the dominant vegetation present. 

Very Deep Soils: Soils that are greater than 60 inches deep to bedrock. 

Very Shallow Soils: Soils that are less than 10 inches to bedrock. 

Very Steep Slopes: Slopes with a gradient greater than 45 percent (USDA-SCS 1993).

Viable: Capable of sustaining a healthy, productive, and reproducing population over a long period of time. 
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807

Visual Resource Management (VRM) Classes: Categories assigned to public lands based on scenic quality, sensitivity 

level, and distance zones. There are four classes. Each class has an objective which prescribes the amount of change 

allowed in the characteristic landscape. 

Waiver (Oil and Gas): A permanent exemption to a lease stipulation. 

Waste Rock: Barren rock at a mine or material that is too low in grade to be of economic value. 

Water Quality: The chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water with respect to its suitability for a 

particular use. 

Water Quality Restoration Plans: A comprehensive plan developed in conjunction with Montana Department of 

Environmental Quality, local watershed groups, and numerous agencies and entities to address and establish water 

quality goals, Total Maximum Daily Loads, restoration strategies, and monitoring. 

Water Table: The surface in a groundwater body where the water pressure is atmospheric. It is the level at which water 

stands in a well that penetrates the water body just far enough to hold standing water. 

Watershed: A geomorphic area of land and water within the confines of a drainage divide. The total area above a given 

point on a stream that contributes flow at that point. 

Watershed Approach: A framework to guide watershed management that: (1) uses watershed assessments to determine 

existing and reference conditions; (2) incorporates assessment results into resource management planning; and (3) fosters 

collaboration with all landowners in the watershed. The framework considers both ground and surface water flow within 

a hydrologically defined geographical area. 

Watershed Assessment: An analysis and interpretation of the physical and landscape characteristics of a watershed 

using scientific principles to describe watershed conditions as they affect water quality and aquatic resources. 

Weed Management Area: These are distinguishable zones based on similar geography, weed problems, climate, or 

human-use patterns with agreements between landowners to cooperatively manage noxious weeds. 

Wetland Vegetation: The outer extent of the obligate and facultative wetland species that grows on land that is 

inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater. 

Wetlands: Areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water often and long enough to support and under 

normal circumstances do support a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. 

Wild River: Those rivers or sections of rivers that are free of impoundments and generally inaccessible except by trail, 

with watersheds or shorelines essentially primitive and waters unpolluted. These represent vestiges of primitive 

America. 

Wild, Scenic or Recreational River: The three classes of what is traditionally referred to as a “Wild and Scenic River.” 

Designated river segments are classified as wild, scenic and/or recreational, but the segments cannot overlap. 

Wild and Scenic River Study: Rivers identified in Section 5 of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act for study as potential 

additions to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The rivers shall be studied under the provisions of Section 4 

of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. 

Wildcat (Exploration) Well: A well drilled in the area where there is no oil or gas production. 

Wilderness: A congressionally designated area of undeveloped federal land retaining its primeval character and 

influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, that is protected and managed to preserve its natural 

conditions and that (1) generally appears to have been affected mainly by the forces of nature, with human imprints 

substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of 

recreation; (3) has at least 5,000 acres or is large enough to make practical its preservation and use in an unimpaired 
Glossary HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

808

condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historic

value. 

Wilderness Characteristics: Key characteristics of a wilderness listed in section 2(c) of the “Wilderness Act” of 1964 

and used by BLM in its wilderness inventory. These characteristics include size, naturalness, outstanding opportunities 

for solitude, outstanding opportunities for primitive and unconfined type of recreation, and special features. 

Wilderness Study Area: A designation made through the land use planning process of a roadless area found to have 

wilderness characteristics as described in Section 2 (c) of the Wilderness Act of 1964.

Wildfire: An unplanned, unwanted wildland fire, including unauthorized human-caused fires, escaped prescribed fire 

projects, and all other wildland fires where the objective is to put the fire out. 

Wildland Fire: Any non-structure fire that occurs in the wildland. This term was updated in February of 2009 to 

include two (rather than three) types of wildland fire: 

 Wildfire: An unplanned, unwanted wildland fire, including unauthorized human-caused fires and escaped 

prescribed fire projects. 

 Prescribed Fire: A planned fire; planned ignitions.

Wildland Fire Use: This term became obsolete in February of 2009 when new interagency guidance was developed for 

implementing Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. The definition was ‘application of the appropriate 

management response to naturally-ignited wildland fires to accomplish specific resource management objectives in predefined designated areas outlined in Fire Management Plans.’ There is no new term to replace this, but the concept 

remains available as a planned management option. Prior to 2009, this term was the third type of Wildland Fire.

Wildland Urban Interface (WUI): The line, area, or zone, where structures and other human development meet or 

intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuel. See also Rural Intermix.

Wildlife Corridor: Landscape elements that connect similar patches of habitat through an area with different 

characteristics. Wildlife corridors are also segments of land which create a link between critical habitats. For example, 

streamside vegetation may create a corridor of willows and hardwoods between meadows or through a forest. These 

linkage zones are where species migrate and intermingle ensuring genetic interchange and consequently long-term 

survival. 

Winter Range: An area where specific wildlife species (primarily deer, antelope and elk) congregate during winter time 

periods. These areas are often composed of topographic or vegetative features that enhance survival for these species 

when conditions such as snow accumulation and temperature place increased energetic demands on individual animals.

Withdrawal: Removal or withholding of public lands by statute or secretarial order, from the operation of some or all 

of the public land laws. 

Withdrawal Modification: To make a change to an existing, indefinite withdrawal. 

Withdrawal Revocation: The cancellation of a withdrawal.

Woodland: A forest community occupied primarily by noncommercial species such as juniper, mountain mahogany, or 

quaking aspen groves. All western juniper or limber pine are classified as woodlands, since juniper and limber pine are 

classified as noncommercial species. 
HiLine Draft RMP/EIS Bibliography

753

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BLM. 1977d. UL Bend/Zortman Management Framework Plan. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land 

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BLM. 1988. Final West HiLine Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement. U.S. Department of the 

Interior, Bureau of Land Management. Lewistown District.

BLM. 1989. Final Bitter Creek Wilderness Environmental Impact Statement. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of 

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BLM. 1992a. Nongame Migratory Bird Habitat Conservation Plan. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land 

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BLM. 1992c. Noxious Weed Management Plan for the Lewistown District. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of 

Land Management.

BLM. 1992d. Wild and Scenic Rivers – Policy and Program Direction for Identification, Evaluation, and Management. 

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BLM. 1994a. Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan Summary, Judith-Valley-Phillips Resource 

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BLM. 1995. Interim Management Policy and Guidelines for Lands under Wilderness Review. U.S. Department of the 

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BLM. 1996a. Lonesome Lake Management Area Environmental Assessment and Resource Management Plan 

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BLM. 1996b. Final Sweet Grass Hills Resource Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement. 

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BLM. 1996c. Partners Against Weeds: Final Action Plan for the Bureau of Land Management. U.S. Department of the 

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U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.

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the BLM Will Meet Its Responsibilities under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) as Provided for in the 

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Environmental Assessment. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.

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and Plant Health Inspection Service-Plant Protection and Quarantine (APHIS-PPQ) concerning Management of 

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Operable Unit 2. Malta Field Office. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.

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Landusky Mines, Phillips County, Montana. Prepared for the BLM by Spectrum Engineering. September. Available 

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With, K. A. 1994. McCown's Longspur (Calcarius mccownii). In The Birds of North America, No. 96 (A. Poole and F. 

Gill, eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC. The American Ornithologists' Union.

WRCC. 2011a. Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) [Website]. http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/lcd.html. 

Accessed December 12, 2011.

WRCC. 2011b. Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) Windrose [Website]. http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgibin/rawMAIN.pl?mtMBLU. Accessed 2010.

World Resources Institute (WRI). 2011. Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT), Version 4.0. [Website]. 

http://cait.wri.org/cait-us.php?page=yearly. Accessed July 15, 2011.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF). 2009. New Directions for the Prairie Economy: Connecting Conservation and Rural 

Development in the Northern Great Plains. Report prepared by Freese, Curtis, Dawn Montanye and Kora 

Dabrowska. World Wildlife Fund.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF). 2010. Update, Baby Bison Arrive on the Prairie, http://www.worldwildlife.org/ who/ 

media/press/ 2010/WWFPresitem16039.html.

Wyoming Game and Fish. 2009. Wyoming Game and Fish. Sage Grouse Core Breeding Areas Version 2. Retrieved 

from Wyoming Game and Fish Sage Grouse Management website: 

http://gf.state.wy.us/wildlife/wildlife_management/sagegrouse/gov_sagegrousecoreareas_v2final.pdf

Young, D.P., Jr., V.K. Poulton, and J. Eddy. 2007. Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) surveys, Foote Creek Rim 

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Bibliography HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

Long-billed Curlew Photo by John Carlson
HiLine Draft RMP/EIS Index

809

Index

Abandoned Mine Lands ............................................................................................................................................. 82, 322

Access ................................................................................................................................................................ 57, 305, 509

Acres of Surface Disturbance ..........................................................................................................................................411

Fire Management and Ecology .................................................................................................................................411

Forests and Woodlands .............................................................................................................................................412

Livestock Grazing – Range Improvements ..............................................................................................................412

Rights-of-Way ..........................................................................................................................................................414

Upland Vegetation – Mechanical Treatments ..........................................................................................................414

Solid Minerals – Salables .........................................................................................................................................415

Other Treatments ......................................................................................................................................................415

Adaptive Management........................................................................................................................................................24

Air Quality ....................................................................................................................................................... 244, 417, 817

Air Quality Standards.........................................................................................................................................................25

Air Resource Management Plan ......................................................................................................................................817

Air Resources .................................................................................................................................................... 25, 241, 417

Alternatives Considered but Not Analyzed in Detail .......................................................................................................170

Amphibians and Reptiles .................................................................................................................................................389

Aquatic Nuisance Species ................................................................................................................................................314

Area Designations of Open, Limited, Closed .....................................................................................................................71

Areas of Critical Environmental Concern ........................................................................................................ 113, 346, 595

Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, Evaluations of Relevance and Importance Criteria ....................................1047

Back Country Byways .....................................................................................................................................................126

Background ..........................................................................................................................................................................1

Bats .......................................................................................................................................................... 114, 301, 346, 392

Best Management Practices ..................................................................................................................................... 837, 897

Biomass ..................................................................................................................................................................... 97, 327

Bison .................................................................................................................................................................. 11, 172, 330

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs ......................................................................................................................................... 153, 393

Bureau of Reclamation Lease Stipulations ......................................................................................................................909

Casual Use ................................................................................................................................................................. 91, 105

Class III Intensive Field Survey ........................................................................................................................................26

Climate .................................................................................................................................................................... 252, 432

Coalbed Natural Gas ................................................................................................................................................ 296, 407

Collaboration .......................................................................................................................................................................6

Communication Sites ................................................................................................................................................. 59, 303

Comparison of Alternatives and Environmental Consequences ......................................................................................174

Consultation

Tribal ................................................................................................................................................................ 268, 741

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ......................................................................................................... 164, 290, 389, 741

Cooperating Agencies .................................................................................................................................................. 6, 742

Corridors, Exclusion Areas and Avoidance Areas .............................................................................................................60

Cultural Resources ......................................................................................................................................... 9, 25, 261, 440

Current Management and Alternatives ..............................................................................................................................24

Development of Alternatives .............................................................................................................................................16

Directional Drilling ..........................................................................................................................................................294

Disposal by Exchange or Sale, BLM Land Available .....................................................................................................977

Draft Resource Management Plan .....................................................................................................................................21

Economics ............................................................................................................................................................... 268, 453

Elements of a Comprehensive Travel and Transportation Management Plan ...................................................................74

Environmental Justice .............................................................................................................................................. 337, 565

Extensive Recreation Management Area ......................................................................................................... 88, 326, 1195

Facilities .................................................................................................................................................................... 58, 306
Index HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

810

Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act .........................................................................................................................55

Fire and Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation ......................................................................................................841

Fire Management and Ecology .................................................................................................................. 32, 281, 411, 465

Fire Management Categories .............................................................................................................................................33

Fire Management Units .............................................................................................................................................33, 281

Fish .......................................................................................................................................................... 36, 286, 473, 1137

Fluid Minerals ................................................................................................................................ 8, 38, 293, 406, 481, 847

Forest Product Sale Quantities ...........................................................................................................................................52

Forests and Woodlands .............................................................................................................................. 52, 297, 412, 502

Geology ...........................................................................................................................................................................298

Geothermal ................................................................................................................................................................97, 327

Gold Panning .....................................................................................................................................................................91

Grassland Birds ................................................................................................................................................................394

Grassland Bird/Greater Sage-Grouse Priority Areas ............................................................................... 123, 156, 166, 395

Gray Wolves ....................................................................................................................................................................394

Grazing Relinquishment ....................................................................................................................................................66

Greater Sage-Grouse ..............................................................................................................................................3, 10, 395

Mitigation Measures and Conservation Actions for Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat ................................................1119

Monitoring of Sage-Grouse and Sagebrush Habitats ..............................................................................................1191

Greater Sage-Grouse Protection Priority Area ......................................................................................... 123, 157, 353, 397

Greater Sage-Grouse Restoration Area ............................................................................................................................169

Guidelines for the Use of Yearling Conversion Factors ................................................................................................1037

Hazardous Materials ..................................................................................................................................................83, 323

Hydrology ........................................................................................................................................................................362

Impacts from the Alternatives ..........................................................................................................................................416

Implementation and Monitoring ................................................................................................................................24, 813

Irreversible and Irretrievable Commitment of Resources ................................................................................................736

Issues Addressed ..................................................................................................................................................................8

Issues and Concerns Considered but Not Addressed Further ............................................................................................11

Land and Water Conservation Fund ..................................................................................................................................55

Land Ownership Adjustment ..................................................................................................................... 53, 302, 509, 975

Lands and Realty ...............................................................................................................................................53, 301, 508

Livestock Allocations ....................................................................................................................................................1003

Livestock Grazing .............................................................................................................................. 65, 173, 308, 412, 512

Local Economic Contribution ..........................................................................................................................................276

Locatable Mineral Resources Reasonable Foreseeable Development Scenario ............................................................1159

LU/Public Domain Lands.................................................................................................................................................266

Master Leasing Plan ..................................................................................................................................................38, 171

Mineral Development and Production .............................................................................................................................275

Mountain Plover ......................................................................................................................................................350, 401

Multiple Use .........................................................................................................................................................................2

National Historic Trails ...................................................................................................................................127, 354, 613

National Register of Historic Places ..................................................................................................................................28

Native Americans ....................................................................................................................................................261, 336

Nonimpairment Criteria ...................................................................................................................................................131

Noxious Weeds and other Invasive Non-Native Species ...................................................................................69, 311, 517

Off-Highway Vehicle Use and Travel and Transportation Management .................................................. 71, 316, 520, 735

Oil and Gas

Best Management Practices (General Conditions of Approval) ...............................................................................897

Operations .................................................................................................................................................................847

Requirements and/or Guidelines for Wildlife, Controlled Surface Use Stipulations ................................................973

Stipulations and Exception, Modification, and Waiver Criteria ...............................................................................913

Paleontological Classifications ........................................................................................................................................319

Paleontological Resources ............................................................................................................................. 9, 81, 318, 530

Perpetual Exclusive Easement ....................................................................................................................................57, 305

Planning Area ......................................................................................................................................................................3
HiLine Draft RMP/EIS Index

811

Planning Criteria ................................................................................................................................................................14

Planning Process ..................................................................................................................................................................6

Population ........................................................................................................................................................................269

Potential Fossil Yield Classification...................................................................................................................................82

Prairie Dog Abundance and Distribution Objectives........................................................................................................155

Produced Water ............................................................................................................................................................... 295

Proposed Resource Management Plan/Final EIS ..............................................................................................................21

Public Lands.........................................................................................................................................................................1

Public Participation Opportunities ...................................................................................................................................739

Purpose and Need ................................................................................................................................................................3

Range Improvements .......................................................................................................................................................412

Raptors ..................................................................................................................................................................... 388, 401

Reasonable Foreseeable Development Scenarios ............................................................................................................406

Fluid Minerals .................................................................................................................................................. 406, 879

Locatable Minerals ......................................................................................................................................... 410, 1159

Wind Energy ................................................................................................................................................... 409, 1151

Reasonable Foreseeable Future Actions ..........................................................................................................................406

Reclamation ...................................................................................................................................................................1041

Reclamation Suitability ...................................................................................................................................................342

Recreation .......................................................................................................................................................... 84, 324, 538

Recreation and Public Purposes Act...................................................................................................................................54

Recreation Management Areas................................................................................................................................... 87, 325

Recreation Management Zones .........................................................................................................................................88

Recreation Opportunity Spectrum .....................................................................................................................................84

Recreation Sites .................................................................................................................................................................94

Related Plans .....................................................................................................................................................................16

Relationship to BLM Policies, Plans, and Programs .........................................................................................................19

Renewable Energy Resources ............................................................................................................................ 96, 326, 558

Resource Advisory Council .............................................................................................................................................742

Retirement of Grazing Privileges ......................................................................................................................................66

Revised Statute 2477 .........................................................................................................................................................59

Rights-of-Way ................................................................................................................................................... 58, 303, 414

Road Maintenance ..................................................................................................................................................... 72, 317

Scoping ........................................................................................................................................................................ 7, 739

Sensitive Species ................................................................................................................................................... 390, 1175

Short-Term Uses versus Long-Term Productivity ...........................................................................................................735

Significant Paleontological Resources............................................................................................................................9, 81

Social ....................................................................................................................................................................... 329, 564

Social Study Area Counties and Communities ................................................................................................................331

Social Trends and Attitudes .............................................................................................................................................329

Soil Resources ................................................................................................................................................. 102, 337, 571

Solar ........................................................................................................................................................................... 97, 328

Solar Insolation ..................................................................................................................................................................97

Solid Minerals ...................................................................................................................................... 8, 102, 343 410, 589

Leasable .................................................................................................................................................... 102, 343, 589

Locatable ........................................................................................................................................ 105, 343, 589, 1159

Salable .............................................................................................................................................. 111, 345, 415, 591

Special Designations ........................................................................................................................................ 113, 346, 595

Special Recreation Management Area ............................................................................................................. 87, 325, 1195

Special Recreation Permits ..............................................................................................................................................326

Special Status Species ..................................................................................................................................... 290, 360, 389

Standards for Rangeland Health and Guidelines for Livestock Grazing Management .................................................1031

Subsequent Well Operations...............................................................................................................................................39

Surface-Disturbing and Disruptive Activities...................................................................................................................152

Swift Fox .........................................................................................................................................................................394

Thirty Mile OHV Area .......................................................................................................................................................78
Index HiLine Draft RMP/EIS

812

Threatened and Endangered Species .......................................................................................................................290, 402

Total Maximum Daily Load .............................................................................................................................................143

Traditional Cultural Properties ........................................................................................................................................268

Travel Management Planning Criteria ...............................................................................................................................74

Tribal Consultation ................................................................................................................................................. 268, 741

Unauthorized Use ..............................................................................................................................................................64

Unavoidable Adverse Impacts .........................................................................................................................................734

Vegetation – Rangeland ...................................................................................................................................131, 357, 571

Vegetation – Riparian and Wetland ................................................................................................................. 137, 358, 615

Vegetation – Special Status Plants ................................................................................................................... 139, 360, 631

Vision and Management Goals ..........................................................................................................................................15

Visual Resources ............................................................................................................................................. 140, 361, 633

Watchable Wildlife Areas ................................................................................................................................................355

Water Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 143, 362, 646

Water Rights ....................................................................................................................................................................372

Wild and Scenic Rivers ....................................................................................................................................127, 355, 614

Wild and Scenic Rivers Report, Eligibility and Suitability Determinations ..................................................................1097

Wilderness Characteristics ......................................................................................................................... 11, 145, 373, 666

Wilderness Study Areas ...................................................................................................................................128, 355, 615

Wildlife ............................................................................................................................................................ 150, 377, 682

Requirements and/or Guidelines for Wildlife Controlled Surface Use Stipulations .................................................973

Wildlife Species...............................................................................................................................................380, 1175

Wind Energy .......................................................................................................................................... 9, 98, 328, 409, 558

Wind Energy Reasonable Foreseeable Development Scenario .....................................................................................1151

Withdrawals ...............................................................................................................................................................64, 307

Yearling Conversion Factors .........................................................................................................................................1037

Zortman/Landusky Mine .................................................................................................................................125, 322, 354