Comment on FR Doc # N/A

Management of BLM WSAs Manual 6330 91 FR 35997 6.15.26 I’m writing to oppose any revision to BLM 6330: “BLM Manual 6330, Management of Wilderness Study Areas” that would weaken protection for wilderness study areas, lands with wilderness characteristics, or recommended, proposed, and eligible wilderness areas. As a descendant of a BLM employee involved in studying and suggesting appropriate wilderness areas to Congress during the early decades of its authority under the Wilderness Act to to do so, I am particularly dismayed at any attempt to dilute the federal governance of those areas of our public lands that have special characteristics worth preserving, and that indeed comprise our national inheritance. The law is clear that while being studied or administered as potential or existing wilderness, public lands may not be developed in any way, including road building. It is for future Congresses to decide whether to set aside a proposed wilderness area based on its studied characteristics, which are unalterably changed once development is permitted. I implore you to oppose any revision to BLM 6330: “BLM Manual 6330, Management of Wilderness Study Areas” that would permit alteration or development in such public lands. The agency has offered no reasoned justification for reversing decades of settled protection and it has made no attempt to convince the American people of the correctness of a policy change that would thwart the clear meaning of the Wilderness Act. A change made to how this law is administered that would be done without proper scientific study and public consultation process would be arbitrary and capricious and would not be in service of the public good. I ask that the existing standards be preserved in full, that no revision lower the standard of care for these lands, and that our wild lands continue to be protected as they have been.