{"id":908017,"date":"2026-05-24T13:13:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/trump-administration-kills-rule-putting-conservation-of-public-lands-on-equal-footing-with-resource-extraction\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T13:13:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:13:40","slug":"trump-administration-kills-rule-putting-conservation-of-public-lands-on-equal-footing-with-resource-extraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/trump-administration-kills-rule-putting-conservation-of-public-lands-on-equal-footing-with-resource-extraction\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration Kills Rule Putting Conservation of Public Lands on Equal Footing With Resource Extraction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t
<\/p>\n
\n
\n

The Trump Administration on Tuesday finalized its repeal of the Bureau of Land Management\u2019s Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, better known as the Public Lands Rule, which gave conservation activities on federal land equal priority with extractive uses like mining and logging. It\u2019s the latest in what is now a long series of decisions from the Trump administration to prioritize industry<\/a> use of the nation\u2019s public lands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aspects of the rule, such as restoring degraded habitat and allowing developers to lease and protect intact public land to offset a project\u2019s impacts on other public parcels, could inhibit resource extraction from the U.S. federal lands, the agency wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBy rescinding the 2024 Rule, the BLM eliminates mechanisms\u2014such as restoration and mitigation leasing\u2014that threatened to restrict productive use of the public lands and introduced uncertainty and unnecessary burdens in planning and permitting,\u201d the BLM wrote in its rescission of the rule<\/a> in the Federal Register Monday before finalizing the decision Tuesday. \u201cExisting authorities and tools remain sufficient to address conservation objectives without imposing prescriptive mandates or rigid timelines on public land users and the BLM itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s 245 million acres of BLM land are guided by the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976<\/a>, which mandates the agency manage them for multiple uses and sustained yield. But achieving that goal, whether for logging timber, mining minerals, grazing cattle or protecting wildlife\u2014all mandated under the law\u2014\u201cdepends on the resilience of ecosystems,\u201d the Public Lands Rule said. The degradation of the nation\u2019s landscapes due to climate change impacts like wildfires and habitat fragmentation from development threaten the durability of the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cEcosystems that collapse due to disturbance cannot deliver ecosystem services, such as clean air and water, food and fiber, wildlife habitat, natural carbon storage, and more,\u201d the Public Lands Rule said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The BLM did not respond to a request for comment on its decision to rescind the rule.<\/p>\n

The 2024 rule had the support of 92 percent of public comments the BLM received on it, and allowed for lands to be leased exclusively for conservation purposes, while also allowing project developers to lease public lands to be protected to counter something like a critical minerals mine built on other public tracts.<\/p>\n

Experts said the Public Lands Rule was a natural extension of the 1976 act, which guides the BLM to balance the uses of the federal lands overseen by the agency, and to protect them for both current and future generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really can\u2019t achieve that kind of multiple use and sustained yield without having some element of conservation in your management policy,\u201d said Jamie Pleune, an associate professor and research fellow in the law and policy program at the University of Utah\u2019s Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment, who was on the committee for the implementation of the rule and studied its legality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Republican lawmakers and developers criticized the rule, arguing it threatened the multiple-use mandate of the nation\u2019s public lands and would prevent extractive uses.<\/p>\n

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon celebrated the decision in a press release, calling it \u201ca welcome return to the statutory principle of true multiple use on our public lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservation groups and local government officials expressed outrage over the rule\u2019s repeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting conservation on the same playing field as other uses like mining, grazing and drilling is a common-sense approach that invites collaboration and lets Western communities like mine have a say when it comes to our most important resource\u2014our public lands,\u201d said Trisha Hedin, a commissioner for Grand County, Utah, home to Arches and Canyonlands national parks. \u201cOur community depends on the health of public lands to attract visitors from all over the world. It is the backbone of our economy.<\/p>\n

\n

This story is funded by readers like you.<\/h3>\n

Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n

Donate Now<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Jennifer Allen, a Pima County supervisor in Arizona, home to Tucson, said the rule allowed the county and partners to \u201cthoughtfully manage the precious public lands that boost tourism, support our local economy and offer incredible opportunities to appreciate and be in awe of Arizona\u2019s majestic desert.\u201d Pima county is home to Saguaro National Park and Ironwood Forest National Monument. The monument is among those the Trump administration has considered downsizing<\/a> in order to expand a nearby copper mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress directed the BLM to manage public lands in a way that balances uses like outdoor recreation with needs as varied as grazing, energy development and conservation of wildlife habitat,\u201d said Alison Flint, acting vice president for federal policy at The Wilderness Society, in a statement. \u201cThe administration\u2019s rescission of the BLM Public Lands Rule flouts both the agency\u2019s legal mandate and the overwhelming wishes of the American people for public lands to be managed in a balanced and sustainable way that conserves special places for future generations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rollback of the Public Lands Rule is just one of many changes the Trump administration has implemented since taking office that affect the BLM and public lands, from laying off thousands of staff to executive orders prioritizing extractive uses like mining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Changes like the rescission of the Public Lands Rule will likely lead to more permitting delays, said Pleune, whose research has found that issues with permitting applications, often caused by unclear rules and policies, were a leading source of holdups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Programs that would have been implemented under the rule, like the mitigation leases, would likely have helped with that, setting up a market that made it easier to identify landscapes needing protection to make way for a developer\u2019s project elsewhere. Conservation leases, Pleune said, would also subsidize the federal budget, allowing for interested parties like conservation groups to begin restoring damaged landscapes, like abandoned mine sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FLPMA statute says they\u2019re intended to be managed for present and future generations and for the public good,\u201d Pleune said. \u201cI believe in that mission. I think it is honorable, and it\u2019s a tradition that we should be proud of. I hope it will continue, although it seems like the current policies are more focused on short-term profit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

About This Story<\/h2>\n

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n

Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n

Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n

Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWyatt Myskow\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

Reporter, Phoenix<\/h4>\n

Wyatt Myskow covers drought, biodiversity and the renewable energy transition throughout the Western U.S. Based in Phoenix, he previously reported for The Arizona Republic and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Wyatt has lived in the Southwest since birth and graduated from Arizona State University with his bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/main>\n\t<\/div>\n

By Wyatt Myskow
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump Administration on Tuesday finalized its repeal of the Bureau of Land Management\u2019s Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, better known as the Public Lands Rule, which gave conservation activities on federal land equal priority with extractive uses like mining and logging. It\u2019s the latest in what is now a long series of decisions from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":908018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1128,4],"tags":[5888,5052],"class_list":{"0":"post-908017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-administration","8":"category-trump","9":"tag-administration","10":"tag-trump"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}