Conservation threatened by Trump administration

The Trump administration seeks to weaken conservation by rescinding a rule that governs public land use. The Conservation and Landscape Rule, adopted during the Biden presidency, applies to 245 million acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM is a multiple-use agency in the Department of Interior that administers lands that aren't national parks, national forests, and national wildlife refuges. Many of us who worked for the agency sometimes facetiously referred to the BLM as the Bureau of Livestock and Mining. Those uses had been the agency's priorities as economic interests often trumped (excuse the pun) resource conservation for present and future generations of Americans. BLM's 1976 organic act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), formally recognized conservation of wildlife, habitat, and watersheds as important values of these lands -- values to be considered whenever projects and programs that could degrade those values are proposed on BLM lands.

The Conservation and Landscape Rule -- adopted in 2024 following extensive public review -- provided teeth for implementing the intent of FLPMA. (For more information, see my April 22, 2024 blog post or this brief video that summarizes the 2024 rule). As you may know, the Trump administration recently rescinded the US Forest Service's roadless rule that protected 58 million acres from development. Now the administration is hell-bent on deep sixing the BLM's rule that puts wildlife and fisheries conservation, recreation, and renewable energy on equal footing with traditional priorities of oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining, and livestock grazing on one tenth of our nation's land mass.

Watch for opportunities to comment on the administration's proposal. BLM lands are our lands. They belong to all of us -- our shared wealth as citizens.