After outcry from Western constituencies and their representatives in Congress, the Bureau of Land Management has extended the public comment period on its proposed public lands rule that threatens to upend those Americans’ way of life.
The new rule proposed in March establishes a framework for “conservation leases” elevated over other uses such as mining, grazing, and gas development. The agency guidelines, which were created without a congressional vote, would implement a radical departure from the “multiple use mandate” outlined by Congress in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).
The multiple use mandate requires the BLM, which presides over 245 million acres, primarily in the West, to make lands available for a wide variety of uses for maximum benefit. Conservation leases are poised to choke off millions of acres from those uses.
[READ: New BLM Rules On ‘Conservation Leases’ Will Fundamentally Transform Public Land Management]
In the agency’s tour promoting the proposed public lands rule, federal officials ignored red state constituents and planned meetings in urban city centers far away from the ranchers most likely to be impacted. Out of the five hearings scheduled on the new rule, just three were in person: in Denver, Albuquerque, and Reno.
Republicans on Capitol Hill demanded the agency not only extend the public comment period, but also hold meetings closer to those whom the new rules would directly hit — such as ranchers whose livestock graze on public land.
“The administration’s proposal will have
