<P> The Bureau of Land Management ( BLM ) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers more than 247.3 million acres ( 1,001,000 km ) of public lands in the United States which constitutes one - eighth of the landmass of the country . President Harry S. Truman created the BLM in 1946 by combining two existing agencies : the General Land Office and the Grazing Service . The agency manages the federal government 's nearly 700 million acres ( 2,800,000 km ) of subsurface mineral estate located beneath federal , state and private lands severed from their surface rights by the Homestead Act of 1862 . Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states : Alaska , Arizona , California , Colorado , Idaho , Montana , Nevada , New Mexico , Oregon , Utah , Washington and Wyoming . </P>
1 the bureau of land management manages over acres of land in the united states
247.3 million