March 31, 2023 |
Photo – White House – Bigfoot99 file photo
The Biden administration, on Thursday, proposed a radical overhaul of the way public lands are managed, adjusting priorities to what the White House says are ecosystem health, recreational access and climate resilience.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso took a dimmer view. “In the 1980s extremists used tree spikes to try and stop responsible management of public lands. In 2023 they use decrees from Washington,” Senator Barrasso said in a statement Thursday.
The overhaul comes in the form of a proposal, dubbed the Public Lands Rule, to be posted on the Federal Register, opening a 75-day public comment period. Officials said they welcome comments to craft a final rule.
The measure drew praise from some environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers, and rebukes from ranchers.
The 88-page rule directs the Bureau of Land Management to “protect intact landscapes, restore degraded habitat, and make wise management decisions based on science and data.” The move signals a policy shift that puts conservation “on an equal footing” with traditional land uses in accordance with the BLM’s multiple-use mandates.
Senator Barrasso took a dimmer view of what’s underneath the flowery language. Wyoming’s senior senator said in a statement, “Today’s announcement undermines the law’s multiple-use requirement for Bureau of Land Management lands. Wyoming families depend on access to public lands for energy and critical mineral development, grazing, forest management, and recreation. The Biden Administration’s extreme unilateral action will kill multiple use. This is a clear violation of the law. I will do everything in my power to stop this proposal.”
Radical groups, like the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that the rule does little more than restate what’s in law already.
Advocates for the livestock industry blasted the proposal from the opposite direction, claiming it would “completely upend” the BLM’s multiple-use mandate.
As of Thursday night, the proposed rule, which would provide an over-arching framework for promoting “ecosystem resilience on public lands,” had not been published in the Federal Register.
