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Interior Proposes Rescinding Biden Public Lands Conservation Rule

A 60-day public comment process now begins under a proposal the administration says would restore BLM’s multiple-use mandate.

The Bureau of Land Management will no longer identify conservation as a productive use of land. Some BLM land in Placer County is seen here in 2024.
FILE - Cattle graze along a section of the Missouri River that includes the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument near Fort Benton, Mont., on Sept. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
FILE - Pumpjacks work in a field near Lovington, N.M., on April 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
FILE - Interior Secretary Doug Burgum listens as President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Overview

  • Interior Secretary Doug Burgum unveiled a plan to reverse the 2024 Public Lands Rule, which had elevated conservation on Bureau of Land Management acreage.
  • The department argues the Biden rule exceeded BLM’s authority by prioritizing conservation or “no use,” warning it could restrict grazing, energy development, recreation and timber management.
  • The Biden policy created a conservation leasing program and encouraged more designations of areas of critical environmental concern, which the rescission aims to unwind.
  • Publication of the proposal in the Federal Register will trigger a 60-day window for public comment before any repeal can be finalized.
  • Environmental groups condemned the move and signaled legal challenges, while industry groups and some states that opposed the 2024 rule welcomed the shift as part of broader land-use rollbacks, including efforts to repeal the Roadless Rule.