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42 Pace Env't L. Rev. 101 (2024-2025)

handle is hein.journals/penv42 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume 42 Fall 2024 Issue 1 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW ARTICLE THE BLM's PUBLIC LANDS RULE AND PERIODIC ADJUSTMENTS IN USE TO CONFORM TO CHANGING NEEDS AND CONDITIONS UNDER THE FEDERAL LAND POLICY AND MANAGEMENT ACT JAMIE PLEUNE* ABSTRACT: On May 9, 2024, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)finalized new regulations, cumulatively referred to as the Public Lands Rule. According to the preamble for the rule, the purpose of the regulations is to advance the BLM's multiple use and sustained yield mission by prioritizing the health and resilience of ecosystems across public lands. When making land management decisions, the definition of multiple use requires the BLM to take into account the long-term needs of future generations. Those resource needs include recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific and historical values. Despite this directive, BLM's practice over the last fifty years prioritized extractive uses, often to the detriment of other land values listed in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). This imbalance, combined with other ecological stresses, has caused widespread degradation of public lands. Degraded landscapes cannot fulfill FLPMA's mandate to ensure a sustained yield of natural resource values like healthy rangelands, productive forests, abundant fish and wildlife, and functioning watersheds. Opponents argue that the Public Lands Rule is inconsistent with FLPMA and will lock up federal lands. This article tests both of those critiques. It concludes that conservation is woven throughout BLM's public land management duties, particularly the maintenance of ecosystem functions 101