Interior Rule Will Block Use Of BLM Lands For Anything But Extractive Use (Mining, Ranching, Timber), Plus Recreation [View all]

Conservation would no longer count as an official use of federal public lands under a plan announced by the U.S. Department of the Interior. On Wednesday, the agency declared its intent to rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s 2024 Public Lands Rule, which placed conservation on equal footing with uses such as natural gas drilling, mining, ranching, grazing, timber production and recreation.

The decision would effectively deny the use of public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management for any non-extractive purpose, opponents say. “With this announcement, the administration is saying that public lands should be managed primarily for the good of powerful drilling, mining and development interests,” Alison Flint, senior legal director at The Wilderness Society, said in a statement. “They’re saying that public lands’ role in providing Americans the freedom to enjoy the outdoors, and conserve beloved places for future generations, is a second-class consideration.”

There will be a 60-day comment period for the proposed rule rescission, during which public land advocates plan to pressure the Interior Department to reverse course. “The American people are not going to stand by and allow our common grounds to be handed over to the highest bidder,” said Todd Tucci, senior attorney at Advocates for the West, a nonprofit law firm defending public lands, water and wildlife in the American West.

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At the time of its consideration, an overwhelming majority of public comments, 92 percent, were in support of the Public Lands Rule. Yet less than one year after its enactment, it is being dismantled. In its press release, the Interior Department said the rule exceeded the BLM’s statutory authority by placing “an outsized priority” on conservation at the expense of multiple-use access. “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,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10092025/trump-administration-public-lands-conservation/