UPDATED | Bureau Of Land Management Repeals Public Lands Rule – National Parks Traveler

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UPDATED | Bureau Of Land Management Repeals Public Lands Rule

By NPT Staff, May 11, 2026

Editor’s Note: This has been updated with additional reactions from parks and conservation groups.

The Bureau of Land Management has repealed the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, commonly referred to as the Public Lands Rule, which put conservation on equal footing with mining, logging, and grazing of public lands. The rule required science-based decision-making, conservation considerations within multiple land uses and a focus on sustaining public lands for the long-term benefit of wildlife and the American people.    

“Today’s repeal of the Public Lands Rule abandons progress at the same moment climate change, chronic drought and accelerating habitat loss demand better stewardship from BLM,” said Maddy Munson, senior planning and policy specialist for federal lands at Defenders of Wildlife. “Irrespective of today’s repeal, the realities facing our public lands remain, as does BLM’s responsibility to sustainably manage them for the benefit of wildlife, communities and future generations.” 

“This fits a pattern of brazen attempts to sell off and sell out our shared public lands at the expense of public access and conservation,” added Beau Kiklis, associate director of energy and landscape conservation at the National Parks Conservation Association. “From gutting agency staff to shutting the public out of the process to sidelining years of sound science, rushed industrial development and private interests are being given a free pass no matter the cost.”

The Public Lands Rule was finalized in 2024 after extensive public engagement and sought to ensure that conservation was considered equally alongside extraction on BLM lands. This approach was supported by 92 percent of the public comments received by BLM.

The process to repeal the rule began in 2025 after President Trump signed an executive order that directed rescission of widely supported rules without any public engagement. The order stated that “[u]nlawful, unnecessary, and onerous regulations impede [economic growth] and impose massive costs on American consumers and American businesses.”

Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum explained the proposed rescission, writing, “The previous administration’s Public Lands Rule had the potential to block access to hundreds of thousands of acres of multiple-use land – preventing energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation across the West. The most effective caretakers of our federal lands are those whose livelihoods rely on its well-being. Overturning this rule protects our American way of life and gives our communities a voice in the land that they depend on.”  

In the months after the Trump administration announced its intentions to rescind the rule, communities across the West passed resolutions opposing the sell-off of public lands. A public comment period for the rescission showed 98 percent of commenters urging the administration to retain the Public Lands Rule, including members of Congress, local elected leaders, former BLM officials, Tribal representatives, and community voices.

“America’s wildest public lands face unprecedented threats from the Trump administration and its repeated decisions to prioritize fossil fuel development and extractive industry over clean water, wildlife habitat, and wild open spaces,” said Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “Americans and Utahns widely supported the [Public Lands] Rule and we are deeply disappointed to see the Trump administration’s shortsighted effort to undo it.”

“To rescind the Public Land Rule betrays the trust of thousands of citizens who believed themselves to be represented when conservation was finally given a seat at the table,” added Jennie Mans, BLM Wildlands Director, Wyoming Wilderness Association. “Working lands should work for all Americans, not just those with industrial interests at heart.”

The 245-million acres of public lands administered BLM provide habitat to over 300 threatened and endangered species and an additional 2,460 at-risk species that are unlisted but trending downward, according to Defenders.

Currently, 81 percent of the National System of Public Lands is open to oil and gas drilling, and approximately 60 percent are grazed by livestock, while only 14 percent are designated for enduring conservation.

“Public lands provide us the freedom to explore the great outdoors. Congress directed the BLM to manage public lands in a way that balances uses like outdoor recreation with needs as varied as grazing, energy development and conservation of wildlife habitat,” said Alison Flint, acting vice president for federal policy at The Wilderness Society. “The administration’s rescission of the BLM Public Lands Rule flouts both the agency’s legal mandate and the overwhelming wishes of the American people for public lands to be managed in a balanced and sustainable way that conserves special places for future generations.”

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