GWC Works with Law Professors Across the West to Weigh in on Public Lands Rule
In 2024, the Bureau of Land Management issue a new set of regulations that would guide its oversight of 245 million acres of federal public lands. Known as the 鈥淧ublic Lands Rule,鈥 the regulations implement the 鈥渕ultiple use and sustained yield鈥 framework adopted by Congress in the Federal Land Policy & Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). The 2024 regulations clarify BLM鈥檚 mission to focus on stewardship of public resources by managing for long-term ecological health and resilience, which will protect the interests of the American public in a sustained yield of renewable and non-renewable resources. The intent of the Rule is to ensure that BLM treats conservation of public resources on par with other multiple uses.
The Rule is well-grounded in FLPMA, which directs BLM to manage the public lands for the long-term interests of the American public without allowing for permanent impairment of the land and the quality of the environment. The Rule does not direct BLM to allow or disallow any specific uses at any particular place, but rather it sets forth a framework for how landscape health will be measured and tracked over time, and how natural resources will be protected when BLM considers potential uses of public lands.听
With the change in Administration, BLM recently proposed to rescind the Public Lands Rule, asserting that it was conflict with BLM鈥檚 statutory authorities in FLPMA. The public notice did not provide much detail on the alleged statutory conflict, but BLM stated its intent to rescind the Rule in whole.
GWC recently submitted comments on the proposed rollback of the Public Lands Rule and worked with law professors across the west to ensure that BLM correctly interprets and applies the multiple use and sustained yield of FLPMA. When Congress passed this bedrock law in 1976, it clearly delegated to the Secretary of the Interior the discretion to decide which uses will be allowed to strike the correct balance between extraction and protection of natural resources. The law professors weighed in to protect the integrity of FLPMA and to uphold the authority of BLM to carefully manage and protect our shared natural resources.听