GAME CHANGER: New BLM Rules On ‘Conservation Leases’ Will Fundamentally Transform Public Land Management, Locking Up Federal Property

“This is an attempt by the Biden administration to end multiple use on public lands.”

The government should not own our lands.

The far left is destroying EVERYTHING and taking what belongs to the people.

Related:House Republicans Demand BLM Extend Comment Period On Public Land Grab

New BLM Rules On ‘Conservation Leases’ Will Fundamentally Transform Public Land Management

By: Tristan Justice, The Federalist, May 19, 2023:

The new BLM rule introducing so-called conservation leasing will likely become the administration’s vehicle for locking up federal property.

he Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing to fundamentally reshape how public lands are managed without congressional approval.

In March, the agency unveiled a sweeping proposal to establish a framework for “conservation leases” that places a newfound priority on preservation. The new Public Lands Rule presents a radical departure from the “multiple use mandate” Congress outlined for the agency in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).

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New Rules Are a ‘Game Changer’

FLPMA requires federal lands to be used in ways that “best meet the present and future needs of the people.” The proposed rules from the federal bureau, which has 245 million acres under its jurisdiction, jeopardize access to public lands for grazing and development. Under the new framework for conservation leasing, parcels of federal property could be leased out by third-party NGOs that cut off any other uses for decades.

David McDonald, an attorney with the Rocky Mountain Legal Foundation, called BLM’s new rules a “game changer” for how public lands are managed.

“Under this regulation, ‘conservation’ would be a ‘use’ just like mining or timber,” McDonald told The Federalist, adding that “the devil is in the details.”

While the BLM summary of the proposed rules repeatedly claims that conservation is merely being elevated to be “on par” with and not above activities such as grazing, mining, and logging, the text includes definitions that reveal ulterior motives. The rules outline new protections with vague terms such as “landscapes” and require officials to “prioritize protection of such landscapes” in leasing decisions. The text in the federal register also makes repeated references to analyzing “cumulative impacts” in decision-making, a phrase often embedded in climate regulation only to be weaponized by radical green NGOs to shut down projects the environmental lobby opposes.

“This is an attempt by the Biden administration to end multiple use on public lands,” William Perry Pendley, who led the BLM during the Trump administration, told The Federalist. “It’s all part of their 30 for 30 program.”

In 2021, President Joe Biden announced efforts to lock up 30 percent of American lands and waterways by 2030. The new BLM rule to introduce conservation leasing will likely become the administration’s primary vehicle for the initiative.

Other problematic areas of the proposal include vague references to prioritizing “ecosystem resilience” and the implementation of “indigenous knowledge” into analyses that can’t be tested.

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“Consistent with applicable law and the management of the area, authorized officers would also be required to avoid authorizing any use of the public lands that permanently impairs ecosystem resilience,” the agency rules state. “Permanent impairment of ecosystem resilience would be difficult or impossible to avoid, for example, on lands on which the BLM has authorized intensive uses, including infrastructure and energy projects or mining, or where BLM has limited discretion to condition or deny the use.”

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