April 16, 2025 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on the Trump Administration’s Plan to Rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Landmark Public Lands Rule – 4.16.25
The Rule reiterates that conservation is one of many uses of the nation’s public lands
Contacts:
Steve Bloch, Legal Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (801) 859-1552 (steve@suwa.org)
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Salt Lake City, UT – The Department of the Interior announced it plans to rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Public Lands Rule. Among other things, the Rule reiterates that conservation is a key component of the BLM’s multiple-use mission and ensures that the agency will consistently manage for that use across the nation’s western public lands. The Rule was the product of an extensive, years-long public process with multiple in-person and online meetings and opportunities for public comment. 92% of the comments received by BLM supported the Rule. Below is a statement from SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch and additional information.
“Doug Burgum often invokes President Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation legacy as a model for his own tenure as Secretary of the Interior. Teddy Roosevelt is rolling over in his grave at both the comparison and Burgum’s ever-darkening legacy over the nation’s public lands,” said Steve Bloch, Legal Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “Secretary Burgum routinely trashes the very concept of conservation of public lands — likening them to a corporate balance sheet to be monetized, applauding as President Trump fired thousands of employees at BLM and the National Park Service, and now this: undoing the wildly popular Public Lands Rule. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance opposes these efforts and will work to keep the Public Lands Rule in place.”
Additional information:
The Public Lands Rule, currently in effect, established a “… framework to ensure healthy landscapes, abundant wildlife habitat, clean water, and balanced decision-making on our nation’s public lands.”It does not preclude any uses on BLM-managed public lands; it puts conservation on equal footing with grazing, mining, and energy production, and promotes restoration, provides for responsible development, and conserves intact healthy landscapes.
The Public Lands Rule is currently the subject of litigation brought by Republican-led states and industry groups in several federal district courts around the country; additional information can be found here. In February 2025, Congresswoman Celeste Maloy (UT-02) and Congressman Russ Fulcher (ID-01) re-introduced the Western Economic Security Today (WEST) Act; this federal legislation would require the Director of the BLM to withdraw the Rule.
- BLM’s webpage on the Public Lands Rule.
- SUWA’s 2.11.25 Statement on the WEST Act and its Impact on the Public Lands Rule
- October 1, 2024 Press Release – Utah and National Conservation Groups Move to Defend Balanced Management of Public Lands from Mining and Oil Industry Lawsuit
- SUWA’s April 18, 2024 Statement when the Final Rule was announced.
- “The BLM Public Lands Rule is a common-sense solution” June 25, 2023 Editorial from the Salt Lake Tribune
- March 30, 2023 SUWA Statement on the Proposed Rule; Advocacy Action from SUWA during the public comment period
- Information regarding public comments received by BLM – 92% of which were supportive.
- Utah-specific polling data from the 2024 Conservation in the West Poll, which shows a clear and resounding preference for conservation when voters are given a choice over how public lands are used.
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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards this world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.