A coalition of industry groups has filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its controversial public lands rule, which went into effect June 10. The agency’s “Conservation and Landscape Health” rule has been a source of contention in agriculture since its proposal, as opponents argue the rule has far-reaching implications on the balance of multiple-use management.
“Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the BLM is supposed to balance the multiple uses of public lands, including livestock grazing, energy, mining, timber and recreation,” said Mark Eisele, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a plaintiff in the suit.
“The BLM’s rule upends this multiple use system by creating a brand new use for federal lands without congressional approval and in conflict with existing federal law,” Eisele continued.
The rule establishes two new categories of leases, mitigation and restoration leases. In the suit, the groups wrote that the leases are “for conservation and no more” and that BLM has created a statute for managing land use into one of non-use. The suit continues that other statutes already exist for the conservation of federal lands, which expressly set aside tracts of land.
Under FLPMA, BLM can consider conservation as a use of federal land, but only as necessary to maintain good conditions of public lands with multiple use. Through Congress, land can be set aside for conservation, the suit said, which it has done in the “narrowest of circumstances” constrained by strict guidelines.
The plaintiffs allege the rule is unlawful, arbitrary and capricious, and must be set aside. “To top it off, the rule is barred by the Congressional Review Act and was promulgated without complying with the National Environmental Policy Act,” the suit read.
The Public Lands Council (PLC) said the rule upends the relationship between federal grazing permittees and the BLM, while giving the possibility to end grazing entirely. The organization, also a suit plaintiff, said it will always defend the role of grazing on federal lands, and that public grazing generates over $3 billion annually.
“Grazing supports the environmental health of the land, reduces wildfire risk, and strengthens rural economies—all valuable reasons to protect public lands grazing in the West,” said PLC President Mark Roeber.
The suit was brought by American Exploration & Mining Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Forest Resource Council, American Petroleum Institute, American Sheep Industry Association, NCBA, National Mining Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Natrona County Farm & Ranch Bureau, PLC, Western Energy Alliance and Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
