On May 15th, the Trump administration’s Office of Budget and Management (OMB) published a notice to rescind the Biden-era Bureau of Land Management Conservation and Landscape Health Rule. The Rule created a path to convert multiple-use lands into specially protected areas, doing an end-run around Congress.
It was a key regulation for the Biden administration to implement the 30×30 agenda and was rushed through his Department of Interior, making it susceptible to OMB review.
ASL filed comments challenging the rule on behalf of the Multiple-Use Alliance, a group of primarily Western counties whose economies were directly impacted.
The Proposed Rule radically altered the BLM’s management focus from multiple use-sustained yield to maintaining resilient ecosystems and intact landscapes and attempted to circumvent Congress by elevating conservation on par with livestock grazing, mineral exploration and development, timber production, and outdoor recreation.
However, such authority does not exist, and fortunately, the Trump administration recognized this and repealed the Biden scheme.
