Land Ownership Map

The core states of the Big Sky region consist of a variety of land ownership and management entities which can affect carbon sequestration activities. The region contains a high proportion of federal and state-owned lands managed by various government agencies, all of whom retain different policies and regulations for permitting sequestration related activities on these lands. Private lands with split surface and subsurface estates further complicate this issue. Because of this, the sequestration potential of a specific site is not governed solely by geologic or technical issues but must engage the myriad of competing regulations and policies that govern both surface and subsurface regulatory frameworks.

The Big Sky region contains large areas of federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, as well as many national parks, state parks, state wildlife management areas and federal wildlife refuges. Many of these lands demonstrate the potential for carbon sequestration activities but such activities will be unique to each site based on surface and subsurface ownership and regulatory frameworks that have only recently begun to emerge.

Data Sources: National Atlas and US Geological Survey