Determine where each agency lies in the administrative structure of the federal government. Identify it as an executive department or an independent agency.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Serves an executive department and the primary federal manager of the nation’s water resources. The Corps builds coastal fortifications, surveys roads and canals, maintain much of the nation’s navigation and flood damage reduction infrastructure and regulates the issuance of Clean Water Act dredge and fill and other permits to the private sector. The Corps has transformed our nation’s rivers and coasts, constructing 12,000 miles of inland waterway navigation channels, 8,500 miles of levees and seawalls, and more than 600 dams (usace.army.mil).
The agency also dredges more than 200 million cubic yards of material each year from the nation’s rivers and harbors and when Congress added environmental protection to the Corps mission areas, it grew to include some of the nation’s most controversial restoration projects.
The Bureau of Land Management: An independent agency and a small agency with a big mission to sustain the health, productivity and diversity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. It administers more public land-over 250 million surface acres than other federal agency in the U. S. located in 12 west states, including Alaska. The BLM also manages 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation (blm.gov).
Since the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, BLM manage public land resources for a variety of uses, such as energy development, livestock gravies, recreation, and timber harvesting while protecting a wide array of natural, cultural and historical resources found in the BLM 27 million-acre National Landscape Conservation System including 221 wilderness areas totaling 8.7 million acres as