Scrapping Public Lands Rule Would Endanger National Parks, According To NPCA

Scrapping the Public Lands Rule that Americans overwhelmingly support would put national parks at risk from energy development and other multiple use, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

When the Biden administration last year passed the rule, it was seen as a measure of balance for management of public lands, which had been greatly titled towards energy development, with 80 percent of lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) open to oil and gas development, according to NPCA.

But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, in proposing to scrap the rule, argues that it disproportionally blocks multiple-use access to BLM's roughly 245 million acres.

"The most effective caretakers of our federal lands are those whose livelihoods rely on its well-being," Burgum said Wednesday in announcing plans to rescind the rule following a 60-day public comment period. "Overturning this rule protects our American way of life and gives our communities a voice in the land that they depend on.”  

The rule, he maintained, could potentially block hundreds of thousands of acres in the West from energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation.

Beau Kiklis, NPCA's associate director of energy and landscape conservation, said the public already has had a voice in how BLM lands should be managed, and it was overwhelmingly in favor of more conservation on the landscape, as an analysis of public comments when the Biden administration proposed the rule showed 92 percent in favor of it.

But he's not confident the Trump administration will recognize public comment that doesn't support its wishes.

"I don't think that there is much degree of value placed on public input into the decisions they're making, and I think that's based in part on the fact that they're actively looking to change law and policy," he said Wednesday afternoon. "They're actively looking to wipe out public engagement in these processes. And so what we're seeing is a whole scale shift in terms of what is normal for administrative policymaking and decision-making as it relates to public engagement and involvement and what's meaningfully done."

If the administration succeeds in rescinding the rule, NPCA fears it will expose parts of the National Park System to negative impacts from oil and gas drilling and mining. Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks in California already suffer from pollution that leads to hazy skies and unhealthy conditions for visitors, according to the organization's 2024 "Polluted Parks" report.

"They're some of the top polluted parks in terms of air pollution and air quality," said Kiklis. At the same time, the BLM's Bakersfield office has indicated it will take another look at areas that could be opened to oil and gas leasing, he said.

In Utah, Dinosaur National Monument, which long has been in danger of pollution from energy development, could see oil rigs near its boundaries if Burgum succeeds, the NPCA official said. Wildlife that migrate out of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in fall and head some 200 miles southeast into the Red Desert to winter could be impacted by increased energy development along that corridor, said Kiklis.

At Defenders of Wildlife, staff said just 13 percent of the National System of Public Lands "enjoys strong conservation protections, with most of the remaining lands open to oil and gas drilling and mining. The National System of Public Lands is home to over 300 threatened and endangered species and an additional 2,460 at-risk species that are unlisted but trending downward. These at-risk species are struggling in the face of widespread habitat degradation resulting from chronic drought, continuing invasive plant species invasions, and unsustainable levels of grazing, oil and gas drilling, and other disturbances."

The proposed rule change also drew disdain from Anna Peterson, executive director of The Mountain Pact, an organization that works with local elected officials in more than 100 Western mountain communities.

“Mountain communities celebrated last year when the BLM committed to a more balanced approach to public lands management for the West — but by proposing to roll back the BLM Public Lands Rule, President Trump and Secretary Burgum are tarnishing that legacy, and jeopardizing all the positives for our communities that would have come with it," she said. "The BLM Public Land Rule provides critical protections for some of our nation’s most important wildlife habitat, treasured recreation areas, critical water resources, and Indigenous sites — resources our communities depend on economically as well as culturally. We’re deeply disappointed in this shortsighted decision, and urge President Trump to put our communities' best interests at heart and protect the public lands we depend on to thrive.”