Public Lands Types
Forest Service, BLM, NPS, oh my! Differing types of public land permit different activities. We break down what you need to know.
Updated:
Mar 24, 2025Updated:
Mar 24, 2025Table of contents
The BLM is the largest land management agency in the country. Their land is mostly areas that weren’t protected as national forests or sold off to settlers in the West. Management priorities on BLM land are generally very similar to Forest Service land, and BLM parcels often butt up against Forest Service parcels as well. But BLM land is generally a little lower in elevation, sometimes a bit less glamorous, and is more often allocated for activities like grazing than land managed by other agencies.
Percentage: 29.4 percent
Acreage: 247.3 million acres
From the bustling Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina to the sprawling Tongass in Alaska, there are more than 150 national forests in the U.S. Originally, these landscapes were protected to save timber for future generations. Trees were conserved because of their value to people rather than the ecosystem. Today, the U.S. Forest Service continues to have timber sales on national forests. While the logging industry has lost steam in much of the West over the last few decades, 2023 timber sales still generated about $280 million in revenue for the USFS. The Forest Service also manages this land for everything from hiking and camping to hunting, cattle grazing, and logging.
Percentage: 23 percent
Acreage: 193 million acres
It’s not just the federal government that manages public lands. States, cities, and counties are in charge of nearly 200 million acres of public land nationwide. It’s common to see small parcels of state land, often a square mile or even less. These lands sometimes abut Forest Service or BLM land or are altogether isolated from public access by private property, and they’re often a resource for activities like cattle grazing. But state parks are common across the country, too. These range from small parcels home to nature walks and mountain bike trails all the way up to Alaska’s sprawling, half-million-acre Chugach State Park.
Cities and counties protect public land, too. One of the most familiar versions of this more local style of public land is city parks. These range from tiny, single-acre parcels to sprawling natural areas like Phoenix’s 16,000-acre South Mountain Park and Preserve—or even New York City’s Central Park. The “City Beautiful” movement of the early 20th Century turned a decade’s held perspective of cities on its head. Instead of testaments to economic progress and so-called “civilization” that required conquering nature, this movement held that cityscapes could be bound with their natural environment. As the century wore on, city parks proliferated. It’s likely that, wherever you live, there are city lands meant to protect parcels of your local environment for you to enjoy.
Percent: 24 percent
Acres: 199 million (includes both state and local)
National forest, BLM Land, and national parks can all have areas designated as wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 was a watershed moment in the U.S. environmental movement. It designated areas to be “untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” These areas are free from industry, development, and human influence; instead they persist as intact ecosystems. Today, there are over 800 wilderness areas in the country, making up nearly 112 million acres.
While wilderness areas are the most preserved landscapes we have, there are many critiques of the designation. Centrally, it erases the humans who trammeled and used the land for millennia; nearly all public lands in the country were once occupied by Indigenous groups who meaningfully manipulated the landscape. And although wilderness is the most protected type of public land, concessions were made from the outset: Cattle grazing occurs on millions of acres within hundreds of wilderness areas. Mining claims were allowed in wilderness until 1984. Today, there continues to be tension over the future of human-powered activities such as mountain biking, which is currently banned in wilderness areas.
Wilderness Study Areas also exist on federal land throughout the country. These areas are essentially “wilderness lite”—They have “wilderness characteristics,” meaning they’re large, relatively intact ecosystems that haven’t been significantly altered by people. Regulations are a little more malleable in these zones. Some WSAs, for example, may permit motorized access and mountain biking, which are strictly prohibited in full-on wilderness. Both wilderness and WSAs are designated through Congress.
Percentage: 13.3 percent
Acreage: 112 million acres
Under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service management, National Wildlife Refuges protect intact ecosystems and the native wildlife depending on them. This is the country’s only land management type dedicated explicitly to wildlife protection. There are more than 580 of these refuges in the country, ranging from Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge to the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, which protects about 15,000 acres of hardwood swamp.
Percentage: 11.3 percent
Acreage: 95 million acres of land (note: the National Wildlife Refuge system also manages more than 760 million acres of marine areas)
These are among the most familiar types of public land to most users. There are 63 national parks in the U.S. The busiest, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, saw over 13 million visitors last year. Many other heavy-hitters—Zion, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite—regularly see roughly four million visits per year. Though national parks are hardly the largest portion of public land by size, they are the country's most well-known and heavily trafficked public land type. And across the board, those visitation numbers are rising. But not all national parks have such heavy traffic. Washington’s spectacular North Cascades National Park, for example, saw only about 40,000 visitors in 2023. Unlike national forests and other land types below, national parks also often charge an entrance fee. And their management differs in other important ways, too. Unlike many national forests and BLM land, parks place more emphasis on preserving both natural and cultural resources—rather than conserving these areas for human needs. This means there’s a blanket ban on hunting in all national parks. This is the only federal public land type with such a ban; seasons and regulations differ based on local specifics. Plus, specific wildlife refuges may prohibit hunting. But all other federal public land types can permit harvesting birds and mammals like deer and elk. (That said, fishing is allowed in many national parks.)
Acreage: 52 million acres
Percentage: 6.2 percent
The vast majority of U.S. public land is in the country’s western half. Below, we break down the ten states with the most federal public land.
Managed by the National Park Service, national preserves are less strictly managed than national parks. Many national preserves allow activities like mining and hunting, along with recreation. But they’re spectacular landscapes nonetheless, and many are a part of broader landscapes that include national parks. Take, for instance, Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias: The national park there is about 8.3 million acres. But the attached preserve (which, unlike the park, allows hunting), is about 4.9 million acres. Combined, it makes for the largest park in the country, at a mind-bogglingly 13 million acres—an area approaching the size of West Virginia. The New River Gorge is a climbers’ haven, and the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve protects some of the last remaining tracts of that ecosystem left in the country. Nearly nine out of ten acres of all the national preserves in the United States are found in Alaska.
Acres: 24 million acres
Percentage: 2.9 percent
Stemming from the Antiquities Act of 1906, national monuments preserve archeologically important areas. Congress or the President can declare an area a national monument. Today, there are 134 national monuments nationwide. Most are managed by the National Park Service—but some are managed by agencies as diverse as the Army and the Department of Energy. These continue to be sources of promise and controversy for public lands; tension over areas like Bears Ears in Utah has ebbed and flowed in recent years.
These areas are managed by the Bureau of Land Management and tend to have slightly more restrictions than other BLM land. Because of the unique resources on these lands, activities like mining or motorized recreation are often limited or outright prohibited. New Mexico’s El Malpais, for example, protects grand sandstone cliffs and canyons, along with cultural resources from thousands of years of human habitation. Some of these areas—like Nevada’s Red Rock Canyon—are recreation hotspots, too.
Acres: 14.9 million acres
Percentage: 1.7 percent
These are similar to national forests, but instead of trees, they conserve large swathes of their namesake grasslands. Historically, tallgrass prairie made up about 150 million acres of the country. That habitat was vital for everything from songbirds to bison. But acres were subdivided, plowed over, and segmented by roads and development. Today, the Forest Service is in charge of about four million acres of national grassland, which is home to everything from hiking and wildlife watching to oil and gas development.
Acres: 4 million
Percentage: .48 percent
These make up more than 800,000 acres of land across the country and are managed by the National Park Service. Unlike many other NPS lands, they offer the opportunity for more activities, like motorized recreation and hunting. Cape Cod and Georgia’s Cumberland Island are two of the country’s 13 federally protected seashores and lakeshores.
Acres: 800,000
Percentage: .1 percent
These are areas, usually managed by either the USFS or BLM, renowned for their natural beauty but also highly influenced by humans. They have less strict management rules than wilderness, but those rules are still meant to protect the landscape and natural resources. Well-known national scenic areas include the Alabama Hills in the foothills guarding Mount Whitney and the Columbia River Gorge.
Acres: 532,000
Percentage: .06 percent
Four agencies are in charge of most of our federal public land. Three fall under the Department of the Interior, and the fourth under the Department of Agriculture. Our breakdown is below:
From national forest to wilderness, the USFS manages an area roughly the size of Texas. Forest Service crews are intimately involved with the maintenance of our public lands, from trail upkeep to fighting fires. Unlike the other land management agencies below, the Forest Service agency is under the Department of Agriculture. Historically, we treated trees on public lands more like wheat or corn or other crops than part of an ecosystem. So, the agency continues to be in charge of most logging and timber sales on public lands in addition to overseeing recreation like hiking, backpacking, and mountain biking.
Acres: 193 million
Percentage of Federal Land: 30.2 percent
The BLM manages more land than any other federal agency: about 248 million acres nationwide. Much of this was leftover from our so-called “public domain.” It was land, in a sense, that nobody wanted a hundred years ago. But today, BLM lands are home to hiking, mountain biking, and climbing. Like the Forest Service above, the BLM operates with a “multiple use” mandate, meaning recreation is but one priority among many. Other uses they seek to balance include cattle grazing, oil and gas drilling, and mining. They’re also in charge of hundreds of wilderness and wilderness study areas across the West.
Acres: 245 million
Percentage of Federal Land: 38.3 percent
The National Park Service manages everything from Yosemite to Acadia National Park, which include the most heavily trafficked public lands in the country. Along with parks, they also manage national recreation areas, national monuments, national battlefields, and more. About 80% of land under NPS management is designated to preserve its “wilderness character.” This means much of the agency’s land is dedicated to preserving the ecosystem as a whole and eliminating potentially harmful activities like motorized access.
Acres: 85 million
Percentage of Federal Land: 13.3 percent
The FWS, also in the Department of the Interior, is in charge of about 89 million acres of public land. This agency administers the Endangered Species Act, legislation that ensures the most imperiled species on the landscape persist. Most notably, they’re in charge of the country’s National Wildlife Refuge System, which includes about 570 preserves across the country. These lands are managed to conserve and restore intact ecosystems and native wildlife.
Acres: 95 million
Percentage of Federal Land: 14.8 percent
The National Scenic and Historic Trails Program protects thousands of miles of trail corridors nationwide, from the Appalachian trail to the PCT. Historic trails follow routes of particular importance, like the Lewis and Clark Trail or the Nez Perce Trail, which follows the tribe’s path as they fled from the U.S. Army. All of these routes protect cultural, historic, and natural resources, and are managed by the National Forest Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management.
More than 13,000 miles of about 228 waterways nationwide comprise our system of wild and scenic rivers. Managed by many agencies, federal and local, they’re home to world-class fly fishing and whitewater rafting, along with spectacular scenery and riverine ecosystems. These rivers range from the Rogue in Oregon to the Merced running through Yosemite to the Rio Grande, along the U.S.-Mexico border. Centrally, this designation also protects many “free-flowing” rivers (rivers that lack major diversions like dams that sever ecosystems along the body of the river).
Easements technically aren’t public lands, but they are important to understand. In general, an easement—whether defined through a formal legal agreement or just through custom—can serve as a mutually agreed-upon right of way through private property. They can be crucial to linking trails or just preserving access to large, public landscapes.
What is ‘multiple use’?
Public land wasn’t created for hiking and mountain biking. Rather, its genesis was to conserve resources—trees, minerals, forage, wildlife, etc.—for future generations. In the 1960s and 70s, policies were formalized: “Multiple Use” means everybody has a place on federal public lands. So, wildlife watchers, hikers, and backpackers are welcome there, but also loggers, miners, and ranchers. No one activity may be prioritized higher than the others. You can read our breakdown of Multiple Use on Public Lands here.
How do we add new public land?
Some federal lands are purchased by the government directly or by a third-party organization, such as The Nature Conservancy, and transferred, sold, or donated to the government. The government also sometimes trades land in “land swaps”—often with private land—to conserve ecosystems and grow their land base. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), established in 1965, also helps buy new federal public land. In 2020, the LWCF was permanently funded at $900 million per year. Throughout the law’s lifespan, it’s helped federal agencies, states, and localities acquire more than eight million acres of land in all 50 states.
How do we lose public land?
In general, it’s quite hard to sell off many types of federal land. However, there are a few ways public land can get stripped out of the system. National Park land, for example, is dedicated to preservation. With Congressional approval, though, the government can add or remove small amounts, especially around the boundary of parks. National Monuments are also managed by the NPS, though, and the president can unilaterally shrink the size of that type of public land. Forest Service land is likewise tough to sell off. The most straightforward way we can lose that type of land is through “land exchanges.” This involves selling off public land to acquire land that was previously private. This can result in losing overall acreage of public land and can also sacrifice access points valuable to recreationists.
Bureau of Land Management land is the easiest to sell off. Congress can disapprove of selling off chunks of public land more than 2,500 acres in size. In fact, Congress passed a wonky accounting rule in early 2025 that could make selling off this type of public land even easier. States can also sell off public lands, and that process differs based on the locality. Still, there are backstops: Most importantly, the country’s environmental review process offers time for public input and opens the door to litigation when necessary.
Which public lands have the highest levels of protection? What about the lowest?
In general, wilderness areas have the highest level of protection. Wilderness areas only allow human-powered recreation—even mountain biking is prohibited (though there is some controversy on the subject). Hunting is allowed in wilderness areas; however, there’s a blanket ban on hunting in national parks, which also have high levels of protections. BLM land and national forests allow extractive activities, including mining, cattle grazing, oil and gas drilling, and timber harvesting. For more on how these activities figure into our public land, see our 101 on Multiple Use.
Are we increasing or decreasing the amount of our public land?
In general, the amount of federal public lands we have is relatively stable. But let’s dig into the data. Between 1990 and 2018, we lost about 31.5 million acres of federal land, or 4.9% of our total, according to a 2020 report from the Congressional Research Service. At the same time, BLM land declined by more than 10%. But national park land went up a bit, by about 5%. Still, through programs like the LWCF mentioned above, we are buying and adding more public lands. The protections for public land are also changing: In 2023 alone, for example, the Biden Administration added five new national monuments—increasing the level of protection for more than 1.5 million acres.
Transfer of public lands to states is also a big deal. A number of bills have been proposed in Congress in years past, but nothing major has been signed into law. Critics of these transfers say that states will sell off the land, or lease it out to extractive industry. This controversy continues to simmer—and sometimes flare up. Utah, for example, is currently suing the federal government over control of roughly 18.5 million acres of the state’s BLM land.
Which states have the least public land?
Public Lands
Wilderness, Explained
Public Lands
How We Fund Our Public Lands
Public Lands
Easements, Explained
Public Lands
The Outdoor Recreation Economy
Public Lands
Multiple Use on Public Lands
Public Lands
Public Access to Water
Public Lands
The Life of a Trail
Public Lands
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