Leaders of national organizations representing those who utilize our nation’s public lands have joined together to file a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) new public lands rule. Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), the BLM is responsible for balancing the multiple use of public lands for productive purposes like grazing, mining, energy development, and timber. Unfortunately, the BLM’s “Conservation and Landscape Health Rule” upends the shared multiple use of public lands and endangers food and energy security.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President and Wyoming Rancher Mark Eisele: “NCBA is suing the BLM to stand up for America’s western ranchers and push back on this harmful rule that only serves as a stepping stone to removing livestock grazing from our nation’s public lands. Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the BLM is supposed to balance the multiple uses of public lands, including livestock grazing, energy, mining, timber, and recreation. The BLM’s rule upends this multiple use system by creating a brand new use for federal lands without Congressional approval and in conflict with existing federal law. NCBA will continue working to hold the BLM accountable in federal court.”
Public Lands Council President and Colorado Grazing Permittee Mark Roeber: “This rule upends the relationship between federal grazing permittees and the BLM while also opening the door to ending grazing on federal lands. PLC will always defend the important role of grazing on federal lands and oppose efforts that would remove grazing and compromise rural communities for the sake of a bureaucratic exercise. Public lands grazing generates over $3 billion annually in valuable ecosystem services, equating to more than $20 per public acre of land grazed by sheep and cattle. Grazing supports the environmental health of the land, reduces wildfire risk, and strengthens rural economies—all valuable reasons to protect public lands grazing in the West.”
American Exploration and Mining AssociationExecutive Director Mark Compton: “The BLM’s Conservation and Landscape Health rule is illegal, unnecessary, and contrary to numerous policy goals of the Biden administration and Congress. Our risky reliance on imported minerals is a direct result of five decades of ignoring Congress’ clear directives that minerals should be mined from public lands to help satisfy the Nation’s need for minerals. The Biden administration’s own goals of fighting climate change and reducing carbon emissions require more domestic mining – not less. The rule significantly changes the way BLM manages the 245 million acres of public land it oversees, to the detriment of America’s mineral and energy independence goals and resource dependent rural communities that produce the fiber, food, minerals, and energy America requires from its public lands. Make no mistake, our members are strong supporters of conservation, not only for public lands but all of the country’s resources, and are ready to work with the BLM to further advance these goals. However, this will not be accomplished by the flawed and illegal provisions in this rule. We expressed these and many other concerns to the BLM, but our concerns were ignored. We’re left with no choice but litigation at this point.”
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall: “Further restricting grazing on public lands takes us backward not forward because ranchers are delivering a return on the trust placed in them to care for public lands. They are clearing brush that could fuel wildfires, controlling invasive species, and bringing overall health benefits to the land.”
American Forest Research Council President Travis Joseph: “The American Forest Resource Council is pleased to join a broad coalition challenging Bureau of Land Management’s mislabeled ‘Conservation and Landscape Health’ rule. Everyone supports the conservation and stewardship of public lands, but the BLM’s rule only serves to add red tape and additional costs to our broken system of federal land management. The current system already makes it difficult for land managers to thin overstocked forests and reduce the risks of wildfires, insects and diseases that are resulting in high tree mortality, carbon emissions, and lost public access and recreational opportunities. It’s also wrong for the agency to rewrite the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and to codify a single use—that is, the non-use of public lands—without the approval of Congress. For these reasons, the rule should be struck down.”
American Petroleum Institute Vice President of Upstream Policy Holly Hopkins: “Energy development on federal lands is critical to strengthening America’s energy security, powering our economy, and supporting state and local conservation efforts. By upending the existing approach to federal land management, the Bureau of Land Management’s final rule will limit future development opportunities and diminish America’s energy advantage. Together with a broad coalition of public lands users, we are asking a federal court to overturn this burdensome regulation and ensure the Biden administration is promoting fair and consistent access to federal resources.”
American Sheep Industry Association Executive Director Peter Orwick: “The American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) immediately funded the opportunity to share in this critical legal challenge. One-third of the nation’s sheep graze federal lands at some point during the year so impacts on permits affect the entire sheep industry from lamb meat companies to wool textile mills.”
National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan: “This plainly unlawful rule is a prime example of the administration’s self-defeating mining policy, and must be struck down. Through rules that are designed to open the door to de facto land withdrawals, this administration continues to erect new barriers to responsible domestic mining projects, threatening to deepen our already grave foreign mineral reliance and blocking access to valuable coal resources at the exact moment minerals and energy demands are exploding. Our laws have always recognized the government’s responsibility to manage public lands for multiple uses. We are absolutely in support of conservation efforts, but they cannot be prioritized over all other lawful uses.”
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Senior Vice President for Government Relations Louis Finkel: “Under the existing regulatory framework, BLM is already incapable of making timely and effective approvals for cooperative wildfire mitigation activities, regular operation and maintenance activities and more. This jeopardizes safety and the reliability of the electric grid. This unlawful conservation rule creates further regulatory and operational hurdles for cooperatives. It compounds the complex, slow, inconsistent, multilayered and challenging BLM bureaucratic processes that co-ops must navigate. And the rule may even jeopardize cooperatives’ ability to serve certain areas.”
Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma: “Western Energy Alliance is thrilled to be joining such a broad base of multiple-use producers, from agriculture, transmission, forestry, and mining to energy. The Biden conservation rule upends the balance BLM has attained on working landscapes across the West for decades across many administrations, both Democratic and Republican. Not satisfied with the hundreds of millions of acres already preserved as national parks, wilderness, and wildlife refuges, the Biden Administration seeks to lock away productive lands that are appropriate for grazing, energy, and other productive uses. By doing so, BLM puts at risk billions of dollars of conservation funding provided by the oil and natural gas industry under the Great American Outdoors Act, the largest source of conservation funding for public lands. The short-sightedness and threat to true conservation is why we’re willing to go to court against this misguided rule.”
Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation Executive Vice President Ken Hamilton: “Wyoming ranchers rely on publicly owned land to grow the food America’s families rely on. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Land Management failed to seek input from the people who work year-round to responsibly steward the resources they’ve been entrusted. The BLM rule fails to recognize the benefits of allowing the decades-old tradition of grazing on public lands and threatens the future of ranching.”
