What is a "National Conservation Area"?
National conservation areas (NCAs) are designated by Congress to conserve, protect, enhance, and manage public lands for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau of Land Management's National Landscape Conservation System includes 16 NCAs and five similarly designated lands in ten states. These lands feature exceptional scientific, cultural, ecological, historical, and recreational values.

Why am I just starting to hear about NCAs?
Over the years, the Bureau of Land Management has had to adjust its approach to public land management to fit the changing needs of the nation. While the BLM has historically managed lands under its jurisdiction for extractive uses, such as mining, logging, grazing, and oil and gas production, President Clinton significantly shifted this role in 1996 when he established the first national monument to be administered by the BLM--the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. With this and several similar designations, a new focus, and a new management system emerged (the National Landscape Conservation System or NLCS) that would become part of how the agency looks at the land it manages: the protection of special areas where conservation and restoration of the landscape and its biological, cultural, and recreational resources is the overriding objective.

What are the benefits of an NCA designation? 
There are numerous benefits to NCA designations which make them well suited to our western Colorado landscape.

• Landscape Management - Biologically and ecologically NCAs enable the BLM to manage larger swaths of land as entire units rather than fragmented parcels. Recreationally they enable BLM to manage an area with both front and backcountry opportunities as a complete unit. In fact designated Wilderness areas are at the heart of western slope NCAs. In some cases, for example the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NCA, these designations are adjacent to existing National Parks or National Forest lands.
  
• Citizen Advisory Councils - In complement to these federal designations, a Citizen Advisory Council, made up of locals representing the variety of invested public stakeholders, is assembled post-designation to guide the local BLM office in the creation of a management plan for the NCA. Together, these Citizen Advisory Councils and post-designation NCA planning processes, ensure that valuable local knowledge is carefully incorporated into the management plan. It is vital that citizens know that the designation of the NCA is really only the first step. The development of a citizen-informed management plan provides the ultimate conclusion.
  
• Economics – These federal designations enhance the diversification of our region’s economy by putting western Colorado’s, often overlooked, canyon country landscape on the map as a mecca of both front and backcountry recreation opportunities.