The Biden administration on Thursday announced a new federal rule for America’s vast public lands that would treat land conservation the same as activities such as grazing, energy development and mining.
The new rules cover areas overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, covering about 245 million acres, or one-tenth of the country’s land, mostly in the West. It improves conservation in a number of ways, including establishing two new leasing options for restoring degraded land and offsetting environmental damage.
The lands have long been managed for “a variety of uses,” including cattle ranching, drilling and recreation. But some of that activity, coupled with new pressures from wildfires and droughts caused by climate change, has taken a toll.
“As stewards of America’s public lands, the Department of the Interior takes seriously the role we play in helping build landscape resilience against worsening climate impacts,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “ Today’s final rule helps restore balance to our public lands as we continue to use the best science to restore habitat, guide strategic and responsible development, and sustain our public lands for generations to come.”
Congressional Republicans and other opponents bristled at an earlier version of the leasing idea last year, accusing the Biden administration of land grabbing and putting national security at risk by allowing foreign entities to occupy land that could have significant economic and social impacts. . Geopolitical uses, such as mineral extraction. The final rule clarifies that leases will be issued only to qualified groups, not to foreign nationals, and will not be issued if they are incompatible with existing uses.
The move is the latest in a series of environmental announcements and decisions from the Biden administration, including Deny approval of road through Alaska wilderness and Restoring endangered species protections.
Conservation groups applauded the latest announcement.
“It’s very exciting,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation advocacy group. He noted that the rule lays the foundation for responding to growing demands on public lands.
“I would say figuring out how to balance that while public lands are under pressure from climate change is the biggest challenge facing the entire West today,” he said.
Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society, said the rule “amounts to a generational shift in how we manage our shared natural resources.”
Of the more than 200,000 public comments submitted on the proposed version of the rule, the vast majority were supportive, according to an analysis by the Center for Western Priorities.
Protecting the health of the environment has always been part of the Bureau of Land Management’s mandate. But experts say environmental protection has been largely sidelined in decisions about how land is used. This new rule aims to change that. If ecosystems collapse, they cannot provide “clean air and water, food and fiber, wildlife habitat, natural carbon storage, and more,” the report states.
Under its rules, the Bureau of Land Management will measure land health everywhere, rather than just focusing on ranches.
According to the agency, activities on its lands generated $262.7 billion in economic output nationwide in fiscal year 2022.
