Nominate Public Land For Better Access

Nominate Public Land For Better Access
Author

Mateo Lorenzo

08/03/2026

If you've ever stared at a map, seen a stretch of public land that's technically yours to use, and realized there's no legal way to actually get to it — you already understand the problem Access Granted was built to solve. Now the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is asking the public to help fix it, and we want every Access Granted member to know how to weigh in.

BLM just opened its fourth round of public nominations under the Dingell Act, running July 31 through August 30, 2026. This is a 30-day window for hunters, anglers, hikers, and anyone who cares about public land access to formally nominate BLM parcels that are landlocked or significantly restricted — the exact issue Access Granted exists to unlock.

What Is the Dingell Act, and Why Does It Matter?

The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (S. 47) became law in March 2019. Section 4105 of the Act directs BLM to build a priority access list of public parcels where legal access doesn't exist or is significantly restricted, then report to Congress on options to fix it — things like acquiring an easement, right-of-way, or fee title from a willing seller.

This isn't a one-time exercise. BLM has now run nomination rounds in 2020, 2022, 2024, and now 2026, and the results speak for themselves: 7,019 total nominations submitted across those rounds resulted in 1,016 distinct parcels — roughly 5.79 million acres — added to the current priority access list across 14 western states, including Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Oregon.

Who Can Nominate, and What Counts?

A nominated parcel must:

  • Be managed by BLM
  • Encompass at least 640 contiguous acres
  • Have no legal public access, or significantly restricted access
  • Be open for recreation consistent with existing land use plans

To submit a nomination, you'll need to provide the parcel's location, its approximate acreage, and a description of why access is blocked or restricted. BLM does not collect or publish any personal information about landowners in the resulting list or congressional reports — the focus stays entirely on the land, not on any individual's property.

How to Submit a Nomination

BLM built an interactive mapping tool for this exact purpose. You can draw the parcel boundary yourself and see every previously submitted nomination — approved, pending, or eliminated — layered on the same map.

Nominate a parcel on the BLM site→

Why Access Granted Is Getting Behind This

Part of Access Granted's mission is to unlock landlocked public land through flexible private-land access corridors. The Dingell Act process is doing the same work from a more long-term angle — using public nominations to build the federal case for permanent access solutions like easements and rights-of-way.

We see this as complementary, not competing: BLM's priority access list is the long-term, permanent-fix side of the access equation, while Access Granted offers a different path for landowners to grant access to landlocked ground in the meantime. Every acre that gets identified, tracked, and eventually unlocked — by either path — is a win for public land recreation.

That's why we're asking our members to take five minutes this month and submit a nomination for any BLM parcel you know of that's cut off or hard to reach. The nomination window closes August 30, 2026 — after that, the next opportunity won't come around for another two years.

Take Action Before August 30

  1. Think about BLM land near you that you know is landlocked or hard to access legally.
  2. Head to the BLM nomination portal and draw the parcel boundary.
  3. Add a short description of the access problem and submit.

It takes a few minutes, it's anonymous with respect to any private landowner, and it directly shapes which parcels BLM prioritizes for access solutions in the years ahead.