Understanding the Public Lands Rule
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the largest land manager in the country, responsible for overseeing 245 million acres of public lands, which is nearly 40% of all U.S. public lands, along with 700 million acres of mineral estate.
While it plays a crucial role in conserving and restoring public lands and waters for future generations, ildlife, fragile watersheds, recreation, and the protection of cultural resources have been overshadowed by productivity and the resource extraction industry.
The impacts of climate change and the harm caused to our public lands by extractive industries have negatively impacted the health of the environment and communities.
To restore habitats and balance responsible development, the Department of the Interior issued a new BLM’s Public Lands Rule in April, which went into effect in June. This rule modernized the agency's management of public lands and gave conservation the same importance as other land uses, such as oil and gas extraction and mining.
This rule does not prioritize conservation above other uses, such as grazing, oil and gas, or mining; it simply elevates conservation as one of the other multiple uses.
This rule, long overdue, provides the BLM with new guidance to ensure more sustainable land stewardship. Its implementation is particularly critical for Western communities, where most public lands are located and where most of these lands are currently open to extraction and development.
Due to historical underfunding, the BLM has struggled to address land degradation and health. This provides organizations and the public with the opportunity to participate in rehabilitating lands and waters, while also helping to cover the costs of conservation work. These restoration leases do not impact existing rights, such as mining, oil and gas development, and grazing, but subsequent uses must align with the purposes of the conservation lease.
Given the numerous challenges that public land health faces, including degradation from fire, drought, invasive species, habitat fragmentation, and other threats, the BLM’s proactive management of lands and resources for conservation is not just important, it's critical.
Besides restoring landscapes and watersheds that are not meeting land health standards, this final rule gives the land managers tools to conserve intact ecosystems from future degradation as contemplated under Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).
The Public Lands Rule is a comprehensive guide for the agency's future decision-making, and it gives a platform for input from states, Tribes, local government, stakeholders, and public land users, including grazing permittees.
While some groups, including the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), have expressed concern and opposition to the Public Lands Rule, nothing in it explicitly minimizes or threatens grazing. It explicitly protects valid existing rights and previously authorized uses, including grazing. It supports grazing permittee/lessee efforts to maintain healthy public lands that can support grazing into the future. This rule doesn't prioritize conservation; it balances all uses. If the BLM receives an application for a conservation lease that conflicts with an existing grazing permit or lease, that conservation lease would not be approved.
Elevating conservation to an equal level with other uses does not restrict public access to public lands. The Public Lands Rule ensures that recreation areas remain open to the public. By offering a way to preserve and restore our public lands, it supports wildlife and traditional activities such as hunting, fishing and other recreational activities.
Despite all the benefits for communities and for the health of our public lands and waters, the final Public Lands rule faces several threats in courts —lawsuits have been filed by five states.
According to the 2024 Conservation in the West poll, Seven-in-ten (70%) Western voters would prefer that their Member of Congress conserve public lands, rather than encouraging energy development on public lands—the largest majority support for conservation we have recorded. With such broad and diverse support, communities must come together and ensure that their representatives in Washington, D.C., listen to what this rule means to them and support its implementation and durability for the future.
The BLM's job is to safeguard our public lands with an approach that balances conservation, recreation, and development for the benefit of current and future generations, and the Public Lands Rule gives land managers the proper tools to do that.