The “Public Lands Rule” clarifies that conservation, access to nature, and safeguarding wildlife and cultural values are an integral part of the BLM’s multiple-use mission, as mandated by Congress.

Despite a broad-ranging multiple-use mission outlined in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976, 90% of BLM-managed public lands are currently open to energy extraction and other industrial development. Energy and mining infrastructure can often restrict public access to public lands, fragment wildlife habitat, pollute local communities’ air and water, and conflict with cultural and historical resource protection. The new rule seeks to provide balance in future land management decisions by placing conservation on equal footing with development – helping to ensure that public interests like addressing nature loss, protecting wildlife and cultural areas, and safeguarding outdoor access and recreation opportunities are prioritized for critical public lands.

The new rule highlights collaboration with Tribal Nations and local communities as essential to achieving successful land use planning outcomes.

The rule creates opportunities for people to engage and support decision-making about those lands and waters close to home—whether outside of metro Phoenix or in rural Idaho.

The rule provides flexibility and adaptability through multiple tools to advance conservation.

The rule outlines several ways that future planning for public lands must consider conservation, including: watershed and land health standards, emphasizing restoration of damaged lands, requiring mitigation to address adverse impacts to important resources, and protection of natural, cultural, and historic resources through Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designations.

Conservation tools will help support sustainable local economies and healthy communities.

Access to BLM lands for recreational activities contributes about $11.4 billion to the national economy—critical fiscal certainty for rural and gateway communities situated near to these lands and waters. The rule’s balanced approach will help eliminate conflicts between industrial development and recreation so that locals and visitors alike will continue to have opportunities to use and enjoy cherished public spaces.

Legal experts have validated the BLM’s authority to develop the rule.

Legal experts have repeatedly confirmed that the rule upholds BLM’s core mission, including 8 state attorneys general and 27 law professors. In a letter to BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning, the law professors stated: “At the highest level, the proposed rule tracks closely to and is consistent with Congress’s clearly expressed intentions in FLPMA that BLM manage the public lands for conservation, as well as consumption, that is, ‘for multiple use and sustained yield.’” (See BLM’s Conservation Rule and Conservation as a “Use”, Legal Article, Environmental Law Reporter, Nov. 2023)

ACECs continue to allow for public access and enjoyment.

ACECs are areas where special management attention is needed to protect important historical, cultural, and scenic values, or fish and wildlife or other natural resources, and can also be designated to protect human life and safety from natural hazards. Public access – such as hiking, hunting, camping, and other uses – remains in these areas as available and consistent with preventing irreparable damage to specified resources. Congress has directed the BLM to prioritize ACECs as part of its multiple-use mission, but for the last 40 years the agency has often ignored those instructions in favor of industrial interests. The “Public Lands Rule” reestablishes ACECs as the principal tool for sustaining public land for future generations, and strengthens the process for their designation and management. 

Restoration and Mitigation leasing will encourage new public-private partnerships to promote healthy public lands for all users.

The rule provides a new tool for the BLM to work directly with individuals, nonprofits, commercial interests, and local communities to restore and enhance fish and wildlife habitat on public lands. Restoration leases would not conflict with existing authorized uses, such as grazing leases, and would not preclude other uses on the same lands if compatible with the restoration objectives.

There are many immediate opportunities to implement the “Public Lands Rule” and conserve lands critical to a vibrant future:

• In the Bering Sea-Western Interior region of Alaska, the 37-member Bering Sea-Interior Tribal Commission has asked the BLM to reconsider Tribal ACEC nominations – rejected during the Trump Administration – to sustain important watersheds, wildlife habitat, and traditional landscapes.

• For decades, the neighboring community has sought to protect English Ridge in northern California, and conserve its wilderness values and public access.

• Otero Mesa in southern New Mexico, home to rare and sensitive grasslands, has long been under threat from oil and gas drilling opposed by ranchers, hunting and fishing groups, conservationists, and elected officials in the state.

• Local communities and the state of Colorado have been advocating for years to conserve public lands of the Uncompahgre Plateau that contribute to the rural character, land health, and clean water essential to the region’s agriculture, tourism, and recreation industries.

• Public lands in and around Elko County sustain one of Nevada’s largest mule deer herds and support local economic contributions from hunting, yet are threatened by development, degraded habitat conditions, and recent wildfires.

• The Greater Hart-Sheldon region in southeastern Oregon and northwestern Nevada is home to some of the last best sagebrush habitat remaining in the West, but current management neglects conservation of BLM lands connecting two national wildlife refuges.

The rule is widely popular and resulted from a transparent and accessible public process.

A 90-day comment period and numerous public meetings provided meaningful opportunities for the agency to hear what recreationists, Tribal communities, ranchers, energy developers, hunters/anglers and many others grapple with on public lands. 92% of the public comments supported the rule. In addition to public comments, Members of Congress, local elected officials, legal scholars, scientists, Attorneys General, former BLM officials, sportsmen and over 100 businesses, all weighed in to support the BLM Public Lands Rule. The Salt Lake Tribune, Denver Post, Albuquerque Journal and other Western papers also editorialized in support.