Last year the Biden administration finalized the “Public Lands Rule,” a long-overdue course correction for how the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees more than 23 million acres of public land in Utah and more than 240 million acres of public land across the nation. At its core, the rule emphasizes that conservation is one of the many “multiple uses” on BLM-managed lands and that the agency should keep conservation in mind as it goes about its work of managing the nation’s public lands.

The rule also explains the importance of incorporating Traditional Indigenous Knowledge into agency decision making, prioritizes the inventorying of intact natural landscapes, and reiterates Congress’s direction that the BLM prioritize the designation and protection of “areas of critical environmental concern.”

All of that is now at risk as the Trump administration’s BLM has embarked on a process to rescind this landmark rule.

The BLM is accepting public comments on its proposed rescission of the Public Lands Rule through Monday, November 10. Tell the agency you support the rule and oppose this regressive action.

For decades leading up to the rule, the BLM too often focused on promoting the development and extraction side of its mission while ignoring the fact that Congress also required the agency to manage public lands for conservation and long-term land health. The Public Lands Rule ended this decades-long imbalance.

Please urge the BLM to uphold its conservation mandate and keep the Public Lands Rule in place.

Consider personalizing your comments by explaining why you care about the future of Utah’s redrock wilderness and other western public lands. You can include examples of places you’ve visited where the BLM should prioritize conservation to protect soils, wildlife, water sources, and overall landscape health.

Thank you!