WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) along with Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), introduced legislation to protect multiple use policy on federal lands. The legislation blocks the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Public Lands Rule.
“Congress gave the BLM a multiple use mandate—not a suggestion. By law, conservation is not considered a multiple use. Yet, the Biden administration is attempting to elevate conservation on public lands over long-standing multiple uses, like grazing, timber management, and mineral development,” said Risch. “Our legislation would reverse this misguided rule and protect the communities and industries in Idaho that rely on productive public lands.”
“Idahoans are excellent stewards of public lands in our state,” said Crapo. “If implemented, this rule will erode tenets of multiple-use from our public lands. This rule threatens Idaho’s grazing, ranching and timber industries, putting unnecessary stress on our economy and families relying on those industries for income. The Biden Administration once again proves to be out of touch with the people who know and use our public lands best.”
“Nearly half of the land in Wyoming is owned by the federal government. The law has long recognized the value of managing much of that land for multiple use— including mineral development, grazing, recreation, and timber management. In Wyoming, we pride ourselves on being responsible environmental stewards of the land. Now, the radicals in the Biden administration are trying to upend a system that is foundational to public land access and productivity. Their outrageous rule is a threat to our Wyoming way of life and our economy. My bill directs the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw this disastrous proposal and follow the law,” said Barrasso.
Read the text of the bill here.
Background: Congress created a framework for the BLM to manage its 245 million of acres through the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). Central to FLPMA is the “multiple use mandate.” The mandate directs that the many productive uses for America’s public lands must be utilized and balanced. These uses include: grazing, mining, energy development, timber harvest, and recreation.
The Biden administration’s proposed Public Lands Rule upends this nearly 50-year public land policy by adding a restrictive definition of conservation—functionally no use—as a multiple use. The proposed rule would also create obstructive “conservation leases” to take otherwise productive land completely out of production for ten or more years. While conservation is often a result of many multiple uses—like grazing and forest management—it has never been considered a use of its own merit and goes in complete conflict with the productive multiple use mandate.
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