BLM says national monument advisory committee disbanded under federal rule changes; staff promise continued local engagement

A Bureau of Land Management representative told the San Juan County Council that the San Juan Islands National Monument advisory committee was disbanded as part of a broader administrative change affecting Department of the Interior discretionary advisory committees, and she described how the BLM plans to continue local engagement.

The BLM representative said the monument advisory committee was originally created under the presidential proclamation that established the monument to advise the agency on the resource management plan. Once the resource management plan was finalized, advisory-committee authority under the proclamation ended; the committee had been rechartered under a discretionary authority and now falls under a wider administrative decision to disband discretionary federal advisory committees.

The representative explained that committees governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) require public notices (Federal Register notices) and closed advisory committees are subject to public-attendance rules designed to avoid undue special-interest influence. She said the department-wide change removed the committee authorizations rather than targeting this monument specifically, and noted FACA-related processes make convening such committees administratively burdensome at present.

The BLM representative outlined alternate, non-FACA ways the agency plans to maintain local input: open public meetings, government-to-government coordination with the county on environmental review (NEPA/SEPA processes), volunteer programs and partnership work with local conservation groups and the land bank. She said the BLM expects to continue public scoping meetings, notices during environmental analysis, and on-the-ground volunteer events when implementation planning resumes.

Council members expressed concern about preserving the carefully balanced stakeholder representation that had been established for the advisory committee and asked how access to the monument lands and shared stewardship would be maintained. The BLM representative said the agency values local partnerships and would invite public input during formal environmental-review and implementation steps. She acknowledged that federal funding and administrative constraints could delay some work and said local partners remain essential to ongoing stewardship.