Trump Administration Wants to Remove Conservation From Approved 'Uses' of Public Land

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the department will seek to reverse a public lands management rule that added conservation as a use of public lands on par with development and extraction,  according to reporting by Matthew Brown for the Associated Press. 

The rule, adopted under the Biden administration in 2024, allowed for public lands to be leased for conservation and restoration in the same way it is leased for extractive uses such as oil drilling. Overturning it, according to Secretary Burgum, “protects our American way of life and gives our communities a voice in the land that they depend on.” Industry representatives say the change will allow the U.S. to exploit its own natural resources. Until the 2024 rule, the agency frequently leased land for grazing and oil and gas leases. 

Environmentalist groups say the rule elevated conservation to its appropriate, “long-neglected” role in the Bureau of Land Management’s mission under the 1976 Federal Lands Policy Management Act. The move adds to a series of changes in federal policy aimed at increasing mining, development, and the sale of public lands.