A proposed rule from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management could raise conservation up as a priority on the land it manages.

Under the proposal, the BLM would prioritize the health and resilience of ecosystems alongside other uses for the land - such as recreation and resource extraction.

There are about 15.7 million acres of BLM land in Oregon. Mark Salvo is the conservation director at the Oregon Natural Desert Association.

"Bureau of Land Management lands have traditionally been managed for resource use and extraction," said Salvo, "despite the fact that Congress and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act did provide the agency tools and direction to manage for conservation of resources as well."

The Western Energy Alliance is among the opponents of this change, saying it goes too far beyond the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act - which laid out the multiple uses that should be prioritized on public lands.

The public can comment on the rule through June 20.

Chamois Andersen - the senior representative for the Rockies & Plains program at the Defenders of Wildlife - said the new rules would help protect wildlife habitat, clean drinking water sources and rural economies.

As the nation faces more frequent and powerful wildfires, prolonged drought and other impacts of a changing climate, she said the proposal shows timely leadership.

"To consider climatic changes, and the impacts to our native grasslands with drought conditions," said Andersen, "and to really take this more holistic approach, putting conservation right in line with other uses of the land."

Salvo said the proposal could be especially beneficial for a 3 million-acre swath of land in southeast Oregon known as the Greater Hart-Sheldon - which is mostly managed by BLM.

He said the region is home to species such as pronghorn, sage grouse and pygmy rabbit.

"We're really excited about how this rule could help to support those current conversations about how to bring long-term conservation protection to the Greater Hart-Sheldon," said Salvo, "and the rich wildlife resources that occur there."

The wild burro population in northwest Arizona is about four times the appropriate management level, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

The agency is seeking public comment on a proposal which would decrease the number of wild burros in three herd management areas south of Kingman. There are about 2,300 burros in the area.

Philip Cooley - branch chief for biological resources with the BLM's Arizona office - said burro numbers have exceeded what the land is capable of supporting, which has consequences for wildlife habitat and local communities.

"The animals overuse the resources in their herd management area and then, as those resources start getting overused and they're competing for the resources, they start moving out into areas outside of the herd management area," said Cooley. "And this is when we can have concerns with the animals going onto private property and causing damage."

Cooley added that the proposal calls for using temporary fertility controls, sex-ratio adjustments and periodic removals of wild burros over a 10-year period.

Although some wild horse and burro advocates prefer other alternatives, Cooley added that it's important to make sure all uses on public lands in Arizona are taken into account.

The comment period closes October 11.

Cooley said because wild burros have very few natural predators and are protected from hunting, herds can quickly grow in size. He added that Arizona is one of several BLM states that has a wild horse and burro program, and says there are coordinated efforts among those states to - in his words - "leverage resources and manage things appropriately."

Cooley said when animals are removed from the range, they're put into the BLM's Adoption and Sales Program, to be placed in private homes off the range.

"We do the 'gathers' in combination with the fertility control," said Cooley. "It's not permanent sterilization, it is a temporary fertility control, that slows down how fast the animals repopulate. It delays getting huge overpopulations."

He added that the agency determines the numbers for each herd management area by analyzing the rangeland resources, as well as population data spanning several years.

Lawmakers in Washington held their first Senate hearing on the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act.

Authored by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., it would add 80,000 acres of new wilderness area in the state. The act would sustain economic development and recreational use of National Forest land in Montana's Bob Marshall, Mission Mountains and Scapegoat wilderness areas. Proponents say it would designate new areas for recreation, safeguard crucial tributaries of the Blackfoot and Clearwater rivers and protect public lands and other waterways.

Juanita Vero, a Missoula County commissioner and whose family has owned the E-Bar-L Dude Ranch outside Missoula for nearly a century, said the act protects the things that make Montana so environmentally special.

"Clean air. Clean water. Open space. Unfettered access. Public lands. Public waters," Vero outlined. "These are all the things Montana stands for, and we get to offer that."

While the bill enjoys strong support, critics contend it contains too many special-interest carve-outs by designating currently protected land as snowmobile and mountain-bike areas, for example, and opens roadless areas for logging companies to bulldoze and clear-cut.

A recent public lands survey found 84% of Montanans support the act, which has been in the works for years.

Todd Frank, owner of Missoula-based Trailhead River Sports, said adding tens of thousands of acres of recreational area is going to bolster Montana's already popular reputation as a mecca for outdoor activities. He added it would be good for business, too.

"I'm a merchant, and everybody that walks through my door is a potential customer," Frank explained. "I look at this thing and say this is a solution that answers every one of my customers' needs that walk through the door."

The Blackfoot Watershed is habitat for bears, moose, deer, elk and wolverines. The rivers and streams are home to world-class cutthroat and bull trout, synonymous with fishing in Montana.


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Two bills making their way through Congress could throw out more than 216,000 public comments on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's new Public Lands Rule, which has come under fire from the fossil fuel industry for putting conservation and outdoor recreation on par with extraction on lands owned by all Americans.

Madeleine West, director of the Center for Public Lands at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said she supports the agency's plan to restore millions of acres of degraded public lands.

"Lands that, if improved, could be better for agriculture and grazing production, could provide higher quality habitat for species, could provide better access for recreation including hunting and fishing," West outlined.

House Resolution 3977 and Senate Bill 1435, which call for the BLM to stop gathering and to discard public input on its draft Public Lands Rule, could get a floor vote when Congress reconvenes after Labor Day. The American Petroleum Institute claims the new rule violates the BLM's mandate to manage public lands for multiple uses and to prioritize the nation's need for domestic minerals including oil and gas.

More than 90% of lands managed by the BLM would remain open for mining and drilling under the new rule.

Keith Baker, a Chaffee County commissioner, believes the industry's concerns are overblown, pointing to a recent report, which showed the nation's oil output will hit an all-time high in 2023.

"I don't think our petroleum industry is really in any near-term danger of being crippled by giving conservation and recreation an equal par with the more extractive traditional industries," Baker contended.

Conservationists say public comments largely in favor of the BLM's proposal show that Americans care about healthy land, water and wildlife, and want to see these values endure for generations. West believes the new rule provides the tools needed to manage a host of 21st century challenges.

"The spread of wildfire, and the cycle of invasive annual grasses, and fire exacerbated by drought," West observed." We have modern management challenges, and the BLM has old, outdated regulations guiding how they can respond."


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