Public lands & Western Arctic rule rollbacks among new White House rescission notices

WASHINGTON D.C. (April 15, 2025) — The White House posted a pair of rescission notices signaling the administration’s intent to begin rolling back two key Biden administration conservation rules: the BLM Conservation and Landscape Health Rule (or Public Lands Rule), which ensures that conservation is considered equally alongside extraction in management of most public lands, and the Management and Protection of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Regulations, which established stronger protections across the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, especially for the 13 million acres of “special areas” in the Western Arctic. 

Alison Flint, senior legal director at The Wilderness Society, made the following statement about the news: 

“Public lands belong to all of us, and they should not be cast off to the highest bidder. With last week’s directive, the president is putting himself above the law and planning to slash the safeguards that protect wildlife, clean air and water and the communities that depend on them. This is not policy—it's a blatant giveaway to industry that threatens to dismantle decades of conservation progress, shut down public access, harm wildlife and accelerate the reckless sell-off of our natural resources. 

The rules the administration has listed for elimination this morning are built on robust public engagement. By eliminating the widely supported, common-sense protections of the BLM’s Public Lands Rule and the NPR-A Management Rule, the Trump administration would be turning public lands into playgrounds for drilling and development interests and ignoring the voices of local communities and many Tribal nations. The consequences would be sweeping and deeply damaging to people, wildlife and the planet. The Wilderness Society will not let this stand.” 

By eliminating the rules, "the Trump administration would be turning public lands into playgrounds for drilling and development interests and ignoring the voices of local communities and many Tribal nations"

While it is unclear exactly how the administration intends to kill the rules, the news comes two months after Interior Secretary Burgum issued secretarial orders calling to suspend, revise or rescind them and numerous others finalized during the Biden administration. Last week, President Trump signed an executive order that directs rescission of widely supported rules without any public engagement. This approach would violate long-standing legal requirements to engage the public in any process that creates or cancels rules governing management of our public lands (among many other components of government). 

The Public Lands Rule, finalized after extensive public engagement, ensures that conservation is considered equally alongside extraction on BLM lands, a commonsense approach supported by over 90% of the public comments submitted on its behalf. The Western Arctic Rule protects critical habitats in the Western Arctic—home to caribou, polar bears and migratory birds—while respecting the rights of Alaska Native communities that depend on these lands and waters.  

This latest presidential directive not only disregards overwhelming public input – it actively erodes public trust. It threatens to strip away protections that safeguard the lands we hike, hunt, fish and rely on for clean air and water. 

The Wilderness Society calls on Congress, the courts and the public to reject this dangerous overreach and defend the laws and values that safeguard our public lands, waters and wildlife. 

Contact: max_greenberg@tws.org | newsmedia@tws.org