The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to discard a new management tool that allows individuals and groups to lease public land for conservation purposes. The move is prompting backlash from conservation advocates, who are encouraging folks to make their voices heard during a 60-day comment period that just opened.
The Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, also know as the Public Lands Rule, was instituted in April 2024 with input from hunting-focused conservation groups like Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). A key component of the rule allows non-profit conservation organizations that do on-the-ground habitat work—groups like the Mule Deer Foundation, BHA, or the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation—to obtain 10-year leases for restoration work in elk, mule deer, and pronghorn habitat—just as the BLM currently awards leases to private contractors for extraction and other development activities.
The Public Lands Rule also grants leases to private contractors for restoration work intended to offset the impacts of large-scale solar developments, livestock grazing in riparian areas, and other permitted uses of BLM land, while still providing hunting, fishing, and other types of recreational activities to the permitted land. Supporters say the rule puts conservation on equal footing with mining, logging, and oil and gas development—all of which have long been prioritized by the BLM.
The BLM announced its plans to scrap the rule back in April 2025, and on September 11, the agency published an official notice in the Federal Register to do so. Officials intend to fully rescind the rule, arguing that “the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule identifies conservation—a non-use—as a productive use.”
“The previous administration’s Public Lands Rule had the potential to block access to hundreds of thousands of acres of multiple-use land—preventing energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation across the West,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a recent press release. “The most effective caretakers of our federal lands are those whose livelihoods rely on its well-being. Overturning this rule protects our American way of life and gives our communities a voice in the land that they depend on.”
Conservation groups like BHA and the National Wildlife Federation disagree with Burgum's assessment. "The majority of America’s mule deer and elk winter range is on BLM,” said Aaron Kindle, Director of Sporting Advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation, in an April interview with Field & Stream. “This rule is critical for those species, for sage grouse, and for some 3,000 other wildlife species that inhabit BLM lands.”
Devin O’Dea, Western Policy & Conservation Manager for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, echoed Kindle's sentiments in a recent press release. "Conservation is not about locking people out; it’s about keeping the door open for future generations,” he said. “The Public Lands Rule drew overwhelming public support from a diverse coalition of stakeholders who recognized the value of healthy landscapes, clean water and abundant fish and wildlife populations—essential elements to ensure our future of hunting and fishing in a natural setting.”
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If you'd like to weigh in on the BLM's plan to undo the Public Lands Rule you can do so here. The comment period is set to close on November 11, 2025.
