Trump Administration Continues Systematic Dismantling of Public Lands

Trump Administration Continues Systematic Dismantling of Public Lands

Proposed rule would shut the public out and allow the administration to make sweeping decisions about 250 million acres of Western public lands behind closed doors

Contacts

Perry Wheeler, Earthjustice, [email protected]

Today, the administration announced a proposed Bureau of Land Management rulemaking that would drastically weaken the public's involvement in land use planning and gut protections for Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, one of BLM's primary conservation designations, across 245 million acres of Western public lands. The rule proposes to stifle the voices of local communities by significantly shortening public comment periods and cutting out robust environmental analysis. These changes would make it easier for the BLM to fast-track the sale, transfer, or use of public lands for oil and gas drilling, mining, data centers, and other industrial or commercial development, all while shutting out the American people. The announcement kicks off a 60-day comment period (January 9th deadline).

The public lands overseen by the BLM contain crucial wildlife corridors, critical habitat, cultural resources and landscapes, watersheds, historic sites, and access to nature and scenery. The rule threatens to strip vital safeguards for ACECs and environmental review that protect these values, leaving the West's most sensitive lands vulnerable to irreparable harm.

The new rule will (Brief Analysis):

• Attempt to eliminate mandatory Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) for land use plans;
• Eliminate the 90-day public comment period;
• Allow BLM to eliminate written comment opportunities in favor of public meetings;
• Eliminate key planning and analysis requirements;
• Bypass normal planning procedures by creating new emergency authority and making broad programmatic amendments potentially easier;
• Weaken area of critical environmental concern (ACEC) designation and protection procedures
• Reduce state, local, and Tribal government participation.

This aggressive regulatory rollback is the latest chapter in a coordinated, systematic dismantling of America's public lands. It directly connects to a broader pattern of hostility toward balanced stewardship, which includes the recent rescission of the landmark Public Lands Rule, stated intention to roll back the Roadless Rule and Wilderness policies, the evisceration of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) standards, and repeated attempts to give away public lands to corporations and developers. This rulemaking contributes to this administration's singular focus: fast-tracking industrial exploitation and drilling at the expense of our shared heritage, tribal sovereignty and the outdoor recreation economies that sustain rural Western communities.

The proposal comes as Congress debates permitting legislation that would also weaken public participation in decisions affecting shared lands and give more power to development interests.

Planning serves as the foundational blueprints governing public lands for decades; eroding these processes is a profound threat to the long-term health of the West. Making robust environmental review optional and weakening ACEC standards intentionally ties the agency's hands, preventing it from effectively responding to the compounding threats of climate change, drought, and habitat fragmentation. This action rejects the unmistakable demand from the American public, including local leaders, Tribal representatives, and local elected officials, who have consistently called for public lands to be managed transparently and protected for future generations.

"Gutting transparency, review, and public engagement requirements within the West's most ecologically sensitive wildlife corridors, watersheds, and cultural resources are the actions of cowards trying to fast-track industrial development at any and all social costs," said Kara Matsumoto, senior policy director at the Conservation Lands Foundation. "Resource management plans are the blueprints for keeping public lands and waters healthy, and weakening them will weaken local economies and fragile ecosystems. We'll continue to fight this corporate greed because the overwhelming majority of Americans want more nature protected, not less."

"The opportunity to review and comment on land management actions keeps the public in public lands." said Hilary Eisen, federal policy director at Wild Montana. "Resource management plans provide the long-term framework for how vast swaths of public land across the West are managed and it is essential that these plans be crafted with robust public engagement. This proposed rule sidelines the public, as well as local, state, and tribal governments, in BLM land use planning."

"Resource management planning is meant to provide the public a real say in how BLM manages our shared public lands, and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern are how the agency turns that input into on-the-ground protections for special places and important wildlife habitat," said Maddy Munson, senior policy and planning specialist at Defenders of Wildlife. "Cutting back public participation and narrowing the agency's analysis isn't streamlining, but rather stacking the deck against the places and species that need protection the most."

"For Nevadans public land is our way of life. Whether we have jobs dependent on mining, grazing, the outdoor industry or just love taking our families camping, these public lands in Nevada are a huge part of who we are. We want to have an active role in determining how these lands are managed and efforts to take the public out of this planning process and weaken protections are just wrong," said Shaaron Netherton, executive director at Friends of Nevada Wilderness. "We need to stand up and keep the public in our public lands."

"The Trump Administration is once again plotting to undermine our world-renowned system of shared lands and the public processes that guide their management," said Jackie Feinberg, Sierra Club National Lands Conservation Manager. "Weakening protections and public participation would fast-track the industrialization and privatization of places essential for wildlife, clean water, cultural and historic preservation, and access to nature. We stand firmly against these attempts to cut out the 'public' from public lands for the benefit of corporate polluters and profiteers."

"The Trump administration continues to eliminate tools that the Bureau of Land Management has relied on for decades for conserving wildlife habitat, protecting clean water, and working with local communities. The objective is clear: replace the multiple uses and values of our public lands with the singular use of fossil fuel development. That agenda has no footing in Colorado, where 96% percent of Coloradans support conserving public lands and open space and 81% believe oil and gas development is not an acceptable use of public lands," said Juli Slivka, senior director of policy and programs at Wilderness Workshop.

"These are the plans that decide whether a valley gets drilled or a trout stream gets protected, and this proposal is built to make those decisions faster and with fewer people in the room," said Bobby McEnaney, senior lands analyst at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). "Cutting the public's time to weigh in by two thirds, scrapping the full environmental review, and letting a political appointee invoke an emergency to skip the rest is not modernization. It is a way to lock in drilling and mining decisions before anyone can object. Governors get 30 days and no appeal, Tribal plans drop out of the review entirely, and the agency gives itself the power to shrink or erase existing protected areas. Interior should withdraw this proposal and keep the public's seat at the table."

"These lands are called 'public lands' for a reason: They are owned by the people of the United States. The Bureau of Land Management's job is to manage them in the public's interest, for the common good. By so severely restricting opportunities for the public-including, importantly, Tribal Nations-to be involved in planning for their management, the BLM is depriving all of us of our rights as the owners," said Michael Painter, coordinator with Californians for Western Wilderness.

"The Trump administration continues its relentless agenda of handing over public lands to corporations," said Thomas Delehanty, senior attorney with Earthjustice's Rocky Mountain Office. "Cutting the public out of land management benefits no one except the extractive industries hellbent on controlling these shared resources for their own private gain. Anyone who values public lands must be loud and clear: these attacks end now."

"Public lands belong to all Americans, and decisions about their future should be made through transparent processes informed by science, meaningful public participation and consultation with Tribes and others in the community. This proposed rule would give us less of a say in the management of 245 million acres of our shared lands and weaken areas of critical environmental concern, the BLM's primary tool for protecting important natural and cultural sites. It is another clear attempt to give drilling, mining and other development interests more influence over our public lands, in the same spirit as rescission of the BLM Public Lands Rule-and only days after voters delivered a stinging rebuke to this administration's agenda of doing favors for oil and gas companies and other powerful corporations. Our public lands deserve better, and so do future generations that will inherit them." said Michael Carroll, BLM campaign director with The Wilderness Society.

"In New Mexico, the BLM planning process gives communities, Pueblos, Tribes, acequias, recreationalists, conservation organizations, ranchers, hunters and anglers a real say in what happens to the 13.5 million acres of public land that the agency manages here," said Sally Paez, senior staff attorney for New Mexico Wild. "Places like the Greater Chaco landscape, the Permian Basin's remaining wildlife habitat, and our desert grasslands have protections today because New Mexicans showed up and spoke out during planning. New Mexicans shouldn't be shut out of decisions about their own public lands."

"In Oregon, the BLM manages 2.6 million acres of Oregon and California Lands that are home to imperiled wildlife, endemic botanical resources, wild rivers, and climate change-mitigating ancient forests that provide outstanding recreational opportunities and socioeconomic benefits to Oregonians and all Americans," said Susan Jane Brown, attorney with Silvix Resources. "The public and other stakeholders must have a central role in the science-informed stewardship of these cherished resources, all of which will be placed at risk of existential loss with BLM's proposed rulemaking."

"Oregon's high desert community has modeled a long, successful history of federal planners, tribal interests, ranchers, hunters and anglers, recreationists, and conservationists working together to craft management strategies that balance land use and promote conservation across 12 million acres of our shared public lands," said Mark Salvo, senior conservation advisor for Oregon Natural Desert Association. "Now the Trump administration is recklessly dismissing these decades of collaboration and compromise, trampling public processes, and sidelining those who have worked to protect these lands and resources for future generations-all to advance a narrow agenda of exploitation at the expense of the public interest."

"The public lands are the people's lands and the American people have spoken loud and clear. The Bureau's proposal to cut public participation, reduce protections for cultural sites and critically important habitat, and shortcut environmental analysis is just one more indication that the Trump Administration isn't listening and will do anything to silence the public, Tribes, and scientists and ignore the reality of what's happening on the ground," said Josh Osher, public policy director for Western Watersheds Project. "Millions of acres of climate-stressed Bureau-managed lands are already being degraded by extractive industries, and we need planning rules that include thorough and honest science-based assessments and as many voices as possible to help improve ecological conditions and resilience."

This is just the latest attempt from the Trump Administration to dismantle our public lands piece by piece," said Sandra Schubert, executive director of Tuleyome. "The proposed Planning Rule undermines protections that ensure that our public lands and wild forests remain accessible and are used sustainably. Resource management plans are built on science and centuries of management experience. They give local land managers and communities the ability to maintain healthy ecosystems while supporting the diverse ways communities depend on public lands. Undermining planning undermines our public lands"

"Once again, Doug Burgum is doing everything in his power to cut the public out of public lands," said Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities. "This new rule gives political appointees in DC more power to shrink protected places and ignore local voices. Public lands belong to all of us, and good land use planning means giving everyone the chance to weigh in."

"America's national parks are supported by the public lands that surround them, and this proposal is another blatant attempt to unravel decades of conservation progress that the public overwhelmingly supports," said Beau Kiklis, associate director of energy and landscape conservation at the National Parks Conservation Association. "Roughly 80 national park sites share a border with BLM lands, and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern have helped protect Dinosaur National Monument from impacts of oil and gas development, support Joshua Tree's wildlife by protecting the neighboring Pinto Mountains, and protect ancestral sites near Hovenweep among countless others. This is another attempt to sell off and sell out our public lands, and the public deserves a real say before more is lost."

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