The Department of the Interior is proposing to rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule, aligning with Secretary Doug Burgum’s commitment to restoring balance in federal land management by prioritizing multiple-use access, empowering local decision-making and supporting responsible energy development, ranching, grazing, timber production and recreation across America’s public lands.
The 2024 Public Lands Rule made conservation (i.e., no use) an official use of public lands, putting it on the same level as BLM’s other uses of public lands. The previous administration had treated conservation as “no use,” meaning it the land was to be left idle rather than authorizing legitimate uses of the land like grazing, energy development or recreation. However, stakeholders, including the energy industry, recreational users and agricultural producers, across the country expressed deep concern that the rule created regulatory uncertainty, reduced access to lands, and undermined the long-standing multiple-use mandate of the BLM as established by Congress. Now, the BLM proposes to rescind this rule in full.
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