The House Committee on Natural Resources discussed legislation to block a proposed change to the Bureau of Land Management aimed making conservation a higher priority in the 245 million acres BLM manages.
The debate heard from leaders in Western states and split mainly along party lines. Republicans raised concerns that the proposed Public Lands Rule would damage their economies and increase wildfire risk by affecting grazing, logging and fossil fuel extraction. Democrats defended the rule, saying that conservation of lands affected by drought and use was urgent.
The proposed rule says that public lands have been degraded and fragmented due to the effects of climate change and an increase in authorized use.
It includes a number of measures to address this, including applying the fundamentals of land health to all BLM-managed public land, regardless of how it’s being used. The rule also introduces conservation as an official use of land, like grazing and mineral exploitation, and it would allow land to be leased for conservation purposes.
U.S. Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah has introduced legislation requiring the BLM to withdraw the new rule, which the House Committee on Natural Resources discussed Thursday.
The committee chair, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, was also critical of the rule.
“In short, this rule would devastate rural economies across the West. Under the guise of conservation the rule would only further this administration's radical preservationist agenda,” he said.
The committee heard from the governors of Wyoming and South Dakota, Mark Gordon and Kristi Noem, who criticized the BLM for not holding hearings on the rule in their states. They expressed concerns that grazing, forestry and fossil fuel extraction would be affected.
The BLM’s Principal Deputy Director Nada Wolff Culver said that the agency had hosted five informational sessions and received nearly 120,000 public comments. She announced a 75-day public comment period would be extended by 15 more days, to July 5.
“I'm optimistic that this rule would help achieve our shared goals discussed by everyone here today to continue to manage public lands so they can support the multiple uses that we rely on now, while also maintaining the health of the lands for future generations,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-New Mexico, said she supported the new rule, saying that it would not cut ranchers off from grazing or stop mining. She called those assertions misinformation.