The Department of Interior is proposing to rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2024 Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, also known as the Public Lands Rule, which has drawn opposition from stakeholders since the final rule was introduced last spring.
“The previous administration’s Public Lands Rule had the potential to block access to hundreds of thousands of acres of multiple-use land—preventing energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation across the West,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “Overturning this rule protects our American way of life and gives our communities a voice in the land that they depend on.”
The proposed rule recission was published in the Federal Register on Sept. 10 and a public comment period will be open for 60 days. Comments may be submitted at regulations.gov by searching for docket ID BLM-2025-0001.
Rule details
The Public Lands Rule complemented President Joe Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative, which was a 10-year effort to protect and conserve lands and waters. The Biden-era BLM said the rule would ensure the agency protected land health while managing for other uses, but ranching groups contended that the rule would tip the balance of multiple use away from grazing.
“Today’s final rule helps restore balance to our public lands as we continue using the best-available science to restore habitats, guide strategic and responsible development, and sustain our public lands for generations to come,” then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said at the time.
Perhaps the most controversial part of the rule was the allowance of conservation leasing, which stakeholders said put conservation on equal footing as fossil fuel extraction and grazing. The rule also called for more designations of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs).
Industry groups called the rule arbitrary and capricious, saying it provided virtually no guidance on when land could or would be set aside for mitigation or restoration and ACECs.
The Biden administration released the final rule on April 18, 2024, after first proposing the rule a year earlier. BLM said it received more than 200,000 comments during its 90-day comment period and five public meetings, which it said were mostly in favor of the rule.
Industry backlash
Industry groups challenged the rule last summer, contending that it violated the multiple use mandate under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 and would have led to the removal of family ranches and other working uses.
“Cattle producers were blindsided with this rulemaking two years ago and were not asked to give any input until the rule was already drafted,” said National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Buck Wehrbein in response to the rule’s rescission. “This was not a rulemaking to improve daily life for Americans, it was a shot across the bow of an entire industry, and we responded in kind.”
NCBA, along with the Public Lands Council (PLC), American Farm Bureau Federation, American Sheep Industry Association and several other stakeholder groups, filed suit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming on July 12, 2024.
“As permittees, we saw the rule’s clear intent: to remove us from our allotments and turn these lands into an unmanaged, unhealthy, unproductive liability,” said PLC President Tim Canterbury.
Environmental groups had applauded the rule and condemned its recission.
“The revocation of this rule commits our National System of Public Lands to outdated management that will confound both science and sustainability,” said Vera Smith of Defenders of Wildlife. “This rule provided for healthy habitats and now it’s foolishly being yanked away in service of the ‘Drill, baby, drill’ agenda.”
Stephanie Garcia Richard, New Mexico commissioner for public lands, had also commended the rule last year. “For too long our nation’s land managers have placed too much emphasis on resource extraction above all other viable uses of public lands,” she said. “It’s great to see the BLM propose a rule that finally puts conservation of our land and natural resources on par with other uses.” — Anna Miller Fortozo, WLJ managing editor
