BISMARCK, N.D.— Community, Tribal and environmental groups today filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s new public lands rule.
North Dakota, Montana and Idaho are suing over the rule, which creates a framework for the agency to manage 245 million acres for conservation. The coalition aims to defend the Bureau’s authority to adopt the long-awaited conservation rule.
The Bureau is guided by a multiple-use mandate, which it has implemented with a focus on extractive uses like fracking, mining, grazing and logging. The new rule, finalized in April, appropriately recognizes conservation as a use, better positioning the agency to manage public lands to serve as a cornerstone of ecological and community resilience in the face of a changing climate.
“It comes as no surprise that certain states hostile to conservation are suing to prevent the Bureau of Land Management from considering conservation of public lands alongside mining and fracking,” said Barbara Chillcott, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “We are asking the court to allow us to make the case that modernizing public lands management for conservation and climate protection in the 21st century completely adheres to the broad authority and responsibility the agency bears under well-established law. The public lands rule will serve as a key tool to help the U.S. meet its climate goals. We are decades behind on reaching them.”
“The Bureau of Land Management public lands rule can help North Dakota to reach Gov. Burgum’s admirable goal to become carbon neutral by 2030,” said Shannon Straight, Badlands Conservation Alliance executive director. “North Dakota has over 4 million acres of public lands and waters, and our grasslands are a vital habitat for wildlife and fish that feed our growing recreation economy. Grasslands store carbon naturally in their deep root systems and are a dwindling natural resource due to the impacts from extractive industries.”
“The Federal Land and Policy Management Act (FLPMA) includes conservation of natural and cultural resources in its multiple use mandate,” said John Rader, public lands program manager at the San Juan Citizens Alliance. “But for decades the Bureau of Land Management has prioritized extractive industry at the expense of our ecosystems and communities. The public lands rule elevates conservation so the Bureau can fulfill FLPMA’s mission and manage our resources responsibly.”
“For too long the Bureau of Land Management has sacrificed our public lands to industry extraction, but this new rule begins to set things right and we’re eager to defend it in court,” said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Congress intended these lands to be managed for conservation as part of its multiple-use mandate. The states fighting this rule care more about shilling for corporations than conserving wildlife, rivers, forests and canyons for future generations.”
“The Bureau of Land Management is the largest manager of public lands in the United States, and it has a critical role in the effort to take on the climate crisis,” said Dan Ritzman, director of the Sierra Club’s Conservation Campaign. “For years, the Bureau managed public lands to maximize extraction and profit over conservation, cultural values, and enjoyment, and some want to make sure it stays that way. We need an energetic Bureau that truly upholds its multi-use mandate — including conservation — not one that privileges industry and extraction.”
“Public lands are ingrained in the lives of so many people that live in these states,” said Chris Krupp, public lands attorney at WildEarth Guardians. “They want more wildlife, not less. They want favorite landscapes that aren’t threatened with industrial extraction. They want public lands conservation. We’re seeking to intervene in these lawsuits to defend the rule from state leaders whose overriding concern is corporate profits rather than their residents’ values.”
The new rule is wildly popular, with 92% of comments submitted to the Bureau in support of elevating public lands conservation. Eighty-two percent of voters in the Rocky Mountain West support a national goal of conserving public lands and waters in the next decade, including more than two-thirds of conservative Republican voters.
In addition to the public comments, members of Congress, local elected officials, legal scholars, scientists, attorneys general, former Bureau officials, hunters and anglers and more than 100 businesses support the Bureau’s public lands rule.
The rule upholds the Bureau’s mission to manage public lands for conservation as both the trustee of federal public lands for the benefit of the American people and the regulator of federal public lands uses, according to WELC experts, eight state attorneys general and 27 law professors. Valid existing rights to graze, mine and drill will not be affected by the rule.
Public lands are a major contributor to climate change. For decades, the Bureau has favored extractive uses, making 90% of its public lands available for oil and gas leasing. Fossil fuel extraction from federal public lands is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and associated harm to the climate and communities.
The Interior Department’s highly permissive approach to oil, gas and mineral extraction on federal public lands has undercut the nation’s ability to deliver on its climate commitments.
Oil and gas companies own leases conveying the right to drill 26.6 million acres of federal public lands and minerals. Although nearly 53% of those leased acres are non-producing, 96,000 wells have already been drilled and the Interior Department has approved, without imposing any climate mitigation measures, an industry stockpile of more than 9,000 additional drilling permits.
Background
The Bureau of Land Management oversees 40% of all public lands — 245 million acres primarily in the western U.S. With its public lands rule, the Bureau is exercising its longstanding authority and responsibility under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to conserve a portion of these public lands in the public interest. The Act defines “multiple use” as management that “takes into account the long-term needs of future generations for renewable and nonrenewable resources,” including “watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific and historical values.”
The public lands rule is the Bureau’s first set of comprehensive regulations designed to conserve public lands under its jurisdiction, defining conservation as a multiple use alongside extractive and consumptive uses, and providing a framework and tools to advance conservation on public lands. The rule has the potential to preserve and restore public lands through, among other things, more Area of Critical Environmental Concern designations, identifying and preserving intact landscapes, instituting widespread land health standards, undertaking restoration planning, and creating a leasing program focused on restoration and mitigation.
The federal lands act requires that public lands be managed to “protect the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archeological values,” and “preserve and protect certain public lands in their natural condition” where appropriate. The Act also directs the BLM to “take any action necessary to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation of the lands.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-19 07:54:00
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