GYC supports new public lands rule proposed by the BLM
Imagine landscapes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem rich with conifer forests, riparian corridors, and sagebrush steppe. Consider how these landscapes like those in the Sand Creek area of Idaho or Big Hole watershed in Montana provide habitat for grizzlies, wolverines, and lynx, and important winter range for elk, moose, mule deer, and pronghorn. Think also about how some these landscapes like those in the Pinedale area of Wyoming are currently managed with an extraction first approach, giving activities like mining and drilling for oil and gas priority over conservation, healthy wildlife populations, and Tribal rights.
It doesn’t have to be this way. And with your support soon it won’t be this way, thanks to a new Public Lands Rule proposed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). We can’t underscore the importance of this policy as one BLM staffer stated, “these rules come around once in a career.”
The Big Hole Valley is a high grassy plain between mountain ranges in southwestern Montana. The Big Hole River, famous for trout fishing, runs through it. (Photo drferry / iStock)
The BLM is the largest land management agency in America, administering 245 million acres of public lands and waters across the country (that’s almost the size of Texas!), primarily in the West. While the BLM lands make up only approximately seven percent of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), they contain important connective landscapes and winter range for a host of species.
Unfortunately, in many areas the BLM has prioritized resource extraction over conservation of lands, waters, wildlife, and cultural resources for over 40 years, even though in 1976 Congress told the agency to take a multiple-use approach, which meant balancing extractive and non-extractive uses of the land.
Fortunately, the BLM recently released a draft proposed Public Lands Rule that would put non-extractive uses, including conservation, on par with extractive ones.
The rule would help conserve intact landscapes, restore degraded habitat, and base management decisions on the best available science and data. It would help ensure healthy wildlife habitat, clean water, access to public lands, and the preservation of archeological sites, historic properties, spiritually significant landscapes, and other cultural treasures.
Trail cam footage of an elk on Wyoming’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. (Photo BLM)
But wait, there’s more! It would also enable the agency to co-steward and co-manage some public lands with Tribal nations that have stewarded these lands and waters since time immemorial.
Some of the highlights of the proposed rule include:
Requiring the BLM to consider land health assessments and monitoring – including standards for water and soil quality, wildlife habitat, and vegetation diversity – in all management plans and agency decision making.
Allowing the BLM to issue “conservation leases” to entities wishing to invest private funds in public land restoration.
Prioritizing the designation and management of areas of critical environmental concern” (ACECs), defined as lands that contain “important natural, cultural, and scenic resources” like those along the South Fork of the Snake River in Idaho which contains the largest cottonwood forest gallery in the West or the Whiskey Mountain ACEC in Wyoming which protects habitat for the largest concentration of bighorn sheep.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and dozens of other conservation groups in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and across America support this proposed rule and applaud the BLM for bringing balance to their management approach. Please join us in commenting in support of this rule and putting conservation on par.
Click here and use the “comment” button to support this rule. Specific comments are most useful and comments are due by July 5. Thank you for your steadfast support!
—Kathy Rinaldi, Deputy Director of Conservation
