Support BLM’s Conservation Rule for Public Lands
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering a transformational change to how it manages public lands. The agency's proposed Conservation and Landscape Health Rule would ensure that conservation and restoration of public lands and waters have equal priority with resource extraction within the agency's management decisions.
The BLM manages 245 million acres of public lands, almost 40% of our nation's public land, including 13.5 million acres in New Mexico. These public lands – our lands – are supposed to be managed in ways that balance multiple uses while maintaining the value and integrity of the land and water. Instead, over 90% of public lands in the lower 48 states are open to leasing for oil and gas development, while 60% have grazing permits. Studies have shown that grazing on public lands often results in severely degraded habitat, and lands opened to oil and gas production may never recover.
Despite federal law requiring that the BLM and its permittees protect land and water, the agency's management priorities continually neglect uses such as conservation, restoration, recreation, wildlife, fragile watersheds, and cultural resources. The proposed rule would clarify BLM's statutory requirement to conserve and restore public lands, bringing the agency's management decision-making into balance while moving us toward the conservation goal of protecting 30% of New Mexico's lands and waters by 2030. The change would help create healthier local communities, water, and wildlife, while building resilience against the worst impacts of drought, wildfire, and extreme weather exacerbated by climate change.
Please tell the BLM Director by July 5th that you support the Conservation Rule.
Dear Director Stone-Manning:
Thank you for putting forward a plan to bring balance to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and clarify the agency's federal mandate to conserve and protect the public's lands. I support the Conservation Rule but would like to see it strengthened to secure a resilient future for Western communities' water supplies, wildlife and cultural traditions.
New Mexicans value our public lands and waters, but we ask a lot from them. These lands and waters support our farmers and ranchers, are critical habitats for an abundance of wildlife, and are also the foundation for recreation, hunting and fishing, tourism, and traditional cultural practices essential for our state's deep cultural diversity.
For more than 40 years, the BLM has prioritized resource extraction over any other uses on public lands. The agency and its permittees have often failed to conserve and restore these precious resources. Protecting and restoring healthy BLM lands will become even more important in the future, as communities across New Mexico continue to experience climate-related impacts such as drought, wildfire, and the loss of nature.
The BLM's focus on resource extraction above other uses is inconsistent with federal law, which requires the BLM to manage public lands in a manner that will protect the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and water, archeological, fish and wildlife, and recreation values for current and future generations.
It's time to bring the BLM's management priorities into balance and clarify the critical and mandatory role that conservation and restoration have in sustaining the iconic landscapes of the West. Expanding co-stewardship with tribal nations will bring traditional knowledge and Indigenous expertise into decision-making to ensure these lands remain healthy and support us in the future.
The BLM should strengthen the proposed rule to help ensure a sustainable future for New Mexico's water supplies, wildlife, and the way of life that makes our state unique. In particular, the rule should:
- Ensure that prior to approving any development the BLM has conducted an inventory of intact natural landscapes, including lands with wilderness characteristics, and determined that the action will not degrade any intact natural landscape
- Ensure that all eligible areas that meet the criteria are designated as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and provided special management attention
- Require the identification and protection of habitat connectivity areas
- Facilitate ecological integrity and climate resiliency across all forests by conserving old and mature forests from logging, wildfire and climate change, using the best available science and Indigenous knowledge
- Require the BLM to consult with pueblos and tribes to fully advance opportunities for co-stewardship, incorporation of Indigenous knowledge, respect for tribal sovereignty and treaty rights, protection of tribal cultural sites, and carrying out tribal consultation in ways that honor the unique historic and current connections of Native Americans to public lands
I'm grateful for the Biden Administration's commitment to conserving and restoring America's public lands and supporting the communities that depend on them. Now is the time to act for the critical places that are the soul of the West. Please strengthen the Public Lands Rule and bring balance to BLM-managed landscapes.
[Your comment here]
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
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