5 Facts about The Public Lands Rule

List Made By: Mason Cain

Below are 7 facts about the Public Land’s Rule, formally known as the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, which the Department of The Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently announced its intent to rescind. Anyone who has an opinion on this rule, for or against, can, and should, go to the federal register and comment (until November 10th!)

1. The rule recognized conservation to be equally as important as any other use on our public lands. Not more, or less, important than something such as coal mining. Equal.
2. The rule allowed for the creation of “Restoration Leases” and “Mitigation Leases”. Just as you can lease public lands for something such as cattle grazing, this rule puts in place a system which allows you to lease lands for conservation and habitat restoration.
3. It is specifically recommended that the leases… “ Avoid siting leases in areas with high potential for future development.” This, among other factors, ensures that these leases cannot critically hamper resource extraction and grazing.
4. Casual use recreation, albeit special circumstances, are allowed on lands leased through this program. Claims that this rule does not allow for recreational use on leased lands, such as hiking, are not true. The only exception is during, and for, exceptionally fragile environmental periods and places (such as a recent seeding of native plants in a restoration project).
5. The rule was subject to a 90-day public comment period, during which a total of 216,403 people voiced their opinion. BLM received over 152,673 comment letters from Tribes, state and local governments, industry groups, conservation organizations, and citizens across the country. BLM also held three in-person meetings and two virtual meetings during the comment period to better engage the public on the proposed rule. BLM actively engaged in government-to-government consultation with Tribes, and received over 20 formal comment letters from Tribal Governments, Alaska Native Corporations, and tribal entities. This is a direct citation from the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) on the public input for this rule.

Interested in learning more? Read Mason’s full paper here!