From the mountains to the prairies, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is on the lookout. Started in 1946, the BLM manages about 250 million acres of public land (about 13% of total US land surface) and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate, most of it in Alaska and other western states. The bureau also performs soil and watershed management on more than 260 million acres, administers some 57 million acres of commercial forest, and is responsible for fire protection and wildfire management of public lands in Alaska and the West. Part of the Department of the Interior, the BLM manages energy, minerals, timber, forage, wild horse and burro populations, fish and wildlife habitat, and wilderness areas.