From its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Bureau of Land Management issued special guidance to its field managers on Friday, paying special attention to public lands with wilderness characteristics.

As a means of protecting the wild areas of the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed Order 3310 in December. According to an agency release, the order established a new BLM policy that allows for the designation of so-called "Wild Lands."

"The Wild Lands policy describes the open process for taking a good look at these lands and hearing from the public, states, local officials, and tribes on how they should be used to meet our multiple-use mission responsibilities," BLM Director Bob Abbey said in the release.

According to the new policy, the BLM - while conducting its usual land-use planning process - will inventory areas with wilderness characteristics, discuss the lands with the public, and consider the Wild Lands classification where appropriate.

If an area is designated a Wild Land, the BLM may enact measures to minimize impact on the landscape.

"(Friday's managerial) guidance will ensure public lands with wilderness characteristics are inventoried, described, and managed in accordance with Secretarial Order 3310," a BLM press release said. "Lands with wilderness characteristics provide outstanding recreational opportunities, as well as cultural, scientific, historical, and ecological resources."

BLM land is primarily located in 12 western states, the release said. Throughout the five counties of the Idaho Panhandle, the bureau looks after 99,000 acres of public land.

A North Idaho land use plan was completed in 2007, said Coeur d'Alene Field Office Manager Kurt Pavlat.

"So the new wilderness policy will really have no effect on the BLM land here in the five northern counties," Pavlat said, unless the BLM acquires new territory with possible wilderness characteristics.

BLM lands farther south, however, might be affected by the policy.

"Here in Idaho, we do have some land use plans that are currently in various phases of planning, so there may be some impact," Pavlat said. "Up here, the policy will, in all likelihood, have no effect on the current classification of the public lands."

While most BLM lands in the Panhandle are multiple use, there are three Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in the northern counties: Grandmother Mountain, Crystal Lake and the Selkirk Crest. Altogether those areas encompass 21,887 acres.

They were designated in the 1980s, Pavlat said.

"And they still are wilderness study areas until Congress determines otherwise," he added.

Wild Lands are separate from WSAs under Order 3310.