Stop the attempt to kill the Public Lands Rule!

We the undersigned submit the following comment in opposition to the recission of the BLM Public Lands Rule, also known as the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule.

This comment addresses the proposed rescission of the 2024 Public Lands Rule (Docket No. BLM-2025-0001-0001).

Before the Public Lands Rule went into effect in 2024 it received overwhelming public support, with 92 percent of all comments submitted favoring its implementation. The Rule wisely guides the BLM in considering highly popular, low-impact uses of these taxpayer-owned lands—including recreation, conservation, and cultural protection—to be on a par with the damaging industrial uses that have predominated BLM lands for decades, chiefly grazing, mining, logging, and oil and gas extraction.

The Rule implements the long-overdue mandate of the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976, which called for providing just such a balance of uses.

If the Rule is rescinded it would cost the agency and American taxpayers an essential tool with which to protect against drought, wildfire, soil erosion, and water pollution. The Rule powerfully addresses the need for ever-shrinking wildlife habitat and to provide wholesome outdoor recreation opportunities. Recently released data show that some 81 percent of BLM lands currently are open to oil and gas leasing. Enough is enough.

Public lands belong to all Americans. Poll after poll has shown that the public wants its lands managed, and managed sustainably, for a wide variety of uses. It is common sense that conservation should rank at least equally with uses that may impair the land, in many cases permanently.

Sustainable uses represent a powerful economic engine. Recreation on these lands helps contribute to the recreation industry's more than $1.2 trillion in annual economic output, far outpacing oil, gas, and mining. Local and state economies benefit long-term from recreation and tourism uses, and need for them to remain unimpaired.

We support the Public Lands Rule and strongly oppose any effort to rescind it.