Over 150K Comments Support Agency Public Lands Rule

The Bureau of Land Management has been flooded with more than 150,000 public comments from across the country supporting their Public Lands Rule, 92 percent of which call for putting conservation on equal footing with energy development and other uses of approximately 245 million acres of public lands in the West. The public comment period was launched in late March and closes today. Full analysis on the comments can be found here.

The Wilderness Society issued the following response:

“The outpouring of support for the Bureau of Land Management’s public lands rule shows that people across the nation care about healthy land, water, and wildlife and want to see these values endure for generations,” said The Wilderness Society President Jamie Williams. “We can’t continue to delay such vital protections for the natural world. The United States should be a global leader and embrace public lands as a powerful solution to help address the climate and nature-loss crises. The fossil fuel industry has had outsized access to 90 percent of BLM public lands for many decades. The public has spoken and wants redress for that unfair, polluting advantage. It’s time we act accordingly.”   

The Bureau’s proposal highlights the need for the agency to work with local communities to focus on the conservation of land, water and wildlife to ensure future access to federal public lands while combating the growing impacts of climate change. It also encourages agency managers to work more closely with Tribal nations to ensure stronger cultural resource protection for ancestral lands across the West.

To speak with The Wilderness Society field staff or local community partners, contact Kate Mackay: 602-571-2603, kate_mackay@tws.org