The Bureau of Land Management is a new rule that would, among other things, clarify that 鈥渃onservation is a use on par with other uses of federal public lands.鈥� Public meetings on the proposal started this week.
The first virtual meeting was Monday evening and will be followed by three in-person events in Denver, Albuquerque and Reno. A final virtual meeting will be held on June 5, just over two weeks before the June 20 deadline for all public comments.
鈥淚 would definitely weigh in,鈥� said John Leshy, a professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco and a former Department of the Interior solicitor. 鈥淚 think you can have an influence if you tell them what you think and give them ideas, because I think this is a sincere effort and I think they鈥檇 listen.鈥�
He called the BLM's so-called Public Lands Rule 鈥渁 good step in the right direction.鈥� It would allow BLM lands to be leased for conservation in the same way lands are currently leased for grazing or oil and gas drilling. Industry groups are largely opposed.
Those conservation leases would 鈥渁llow the public to directly support durable protection and restoration efforts to build and maintain the resilience of public lands,鈥� according to the proposed rule as in the Federal Register.
鈥淭hese leases would be available to entities seeking to restore public lands or provide mitigation for a particular action,鈥� the rule continues. 鈥淭hey would not override valid existing rights or preclude other, subsequent authorizations so long as those subsequent authorizations are compatible with the conservation use.鈥�
Idaho鈥檚 congressional delegation recently the BLM for not planning an in-person hearing in the state, home to nearly 12 million acres managed by the agency.
鈥�(T)he closest in-person meeting for Idaho residents is Reno, Nevada, a trip that can take anywhere between five and 14 hours by car,鈥� the federal lawmakers wrote. 鈥淎dditionally, while significant strides have been made in rural broadband development, some Idaho residents still lack reliable coverage needed to communicate and participate in a virtual meeting.鈥�
The full BLM public meetings schedule for the proposed rule is .
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