The Department of the Interior announced on Wednesday that it is repealing the Biden administration’s Public Land Rule, meant to boost conservation, to instead prioritize using public land for multiple purposes, including grazing, recreation, and energy development.
The Biden administration finalized the Public Land Rule, also known as the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, in 2024. The regulation was imposed by the Bureau of Land Management, prioritizing conservation and land restoration. It directed the agency to manage for landscape health and limit the organizations and individuals who can obtain mitigation leases on these lands.
The DOI said that the previous administration treated conservation as “no use,” meaning that the land was to be left idle rather than authorizing legitimate uses of the land, such as grazing, energy development, or recreation. The DOI’s effort to rescind the rule is part of the Trump administration’s agenda to make public lands accessible to energy development, such as drilling and mining.
“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,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
The department stated that the Biden rule exceeded the Bureau of Land Management’s authority by restricting land use. This approach could harm grazing, energy development, recreation, and other traditional uses of public lands, the department argued. It added that many rural communities rely on these lands for jobs related to agriculture, mining, and energy production.
The administration said that repealing the rule restores BLM to its “legal mandate and protects these economic drivers from restrictive land-use policies.”
The department moved to withdraw the rule earlier this year. The Office of Management and Budget last week concluded its review of the agency’s proposed rescission.
Before the proposed rule, the National Mining Association had already praised the DOI’s effort, stating, “The Biden administration unlawfully placed conservation above all else, enacted unwarranted land withdrawals and 180-degree reversals of fully approved projects.”
“This new rule reinstates the balance of federal land use intended by Congress, ensuring that our vast resources can meet today’s soaring energy needs and become the secure mineral supply chains for American industry,” it added.
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However, environmentalists and climate activists had praised the Biden rule, arguing that it would put conservation efforts on an equal footing with infrastructure development.
Defenders of Wildlife strongly opposes the Trump administration’s decision to revoke the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule. The group said the rule is essential because it updates the management of national public lands.
“The revocation of this rule commits our National System of Public Lands to outdated management that will confound both science and sustainability,” Vera Smith, national forests and public lands director at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. “This rule provided for healthy habitats and now it’s foolishly being yanked away in service of the ‘Drill, baby, drill’ agenda.”