Public Lands Council Says Proposed BLM Rule Not Legal

At the beginning of April, the Bureau of Land Management proposed the conservation and landscape health rule without input from stakeholders. According to Kaityly Glover, Executive Director of the Public Lands Council.

“It would allow the BLM to codify areas of Critical Environmental Concern, and really elevate that tool that really doesn't allow a lot of activities doesn't allow for a lot of management allows them to to do more of those across the landscape with less public input. So that's real problem number one, and there are a couple of other problems here, but probably chief among them, is that this rule would allow the creation of a conservation leasing system. Under the BLM, the BLM took some pretty big liberties with this proposed rule.”

Glover says that this new rule would allow the BLM to prioritize conservation uses of the land.

The BLM has said they're prioritizing conservation and conservation leases over other multiple use. But if a conservation lease is put on the landscape, and other activities are incompatible with that conservation lease, the other activities will not be allowed. This includes grazing. This includes recreation. This includes all of the other things that have been happening on these lands for generations.”

Glover says that the PLC and the National Cattlemans Beef Association don't view the rule as legal. As a result, they along with other organizations have banded together to fight against the proposed conservation and landscape health rule.