BLM Public Lands Rule Protects Treasured Places for the Future
Serpentine slot canyons squeeze hikers until they open to multi-colored sandstone amphitheaters. Ancient rock art depicting plants, animals, people, and mythological figures. Winter range home to thousands of deer and elk. A working landscape that provides goods and services and buffers protected areas from development. A kid’s first deer hunt. A shooting range for practice. A mine. These are just a handful of activities that take place on the nearly 250 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands across the United States.
The Centennial Mountains Wilderness Study Area (WSA) is an important wildlife migration and movement corridor in southwest Montana. BLM lands are crucial to healthy, stable wildlife populations in Greater Yellowstone. (Photo Bob Wick/BLM)
The mission of the BLM is to “sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.” As with every multiple-use mandate, when competing interests intersect, it is difficult to balance uses for today and generations from now. What is productive today, like energy development, may not be healthy or sustain diversity for the future. Often, when interests compete, conservation gets short shrift.
BLM lands have been managed under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. Today, the BLM released the most significant change in the management of BLM lands in 50 years with the final Public Lands Rule which puts conservation on equal ground with other uses like mining and energy development. Conservation, under the Public Lands Rule, would protect the most intact functioning landscapes and restore degraded ones.
With nearly 250 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands across the United States, there’s no shortage of recreation opportunities. (Photo Bob Wick/BLM)
An innovative tool included in the Rule is a conservation lease to restore rangelands. With these leases, private companies or nonprofit organizations could negotiate leases with the BLM to help restore degraded lands. Examples of leases could be in response to a large-scale fire where a sportsman or conservation organization could lease the burned area to restore it to native vegetation, preventing the spread of invasive weeds which often come after disturbance, and returning it to a working landscape. Conservation leases could also be used by industry to offset impacts from site-specific projects like mines, energy farms, or oil and gas wells.
A lot has changed since 1976. Happy Days is no longer the most popular TV show and Tab doesn’t exist as a soft drink. A lot has changed with public lands in Greater Yellowstone too. Today, there is increased drought, changing precipitation patterns, and more pressure on our public lands for development than ever before. We need policies and innovative tools that can keep up with the times and the challenges we face today, without which we’ll be caught flat-footed at the cost of future generations.
The BLM Public Lands Rule is a step in the right direction.
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—Kathy Rinaldi, Deputy Director of Conservation (Driggs, Idaho)
