U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration recently repealed the 2024 Public Lands Rule, which established that conservation should have equal priority with industry when it comes to accessing leases for U.S. public land.<\/p>\n
That shift in priorities will apply to 245 million acres (99 million hectares) of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). That\u2019s roughly 10% of U.S. land that the agency leases for a multitude of private uses including grazing, mining, energy development and, until recently, conservation.<\/p>\n
In the federal register the Department of the Interior (DOI) said, \u201c[b]y rescinding the 2024 Rule, the BLM eliminates mechanisms \u2014 such as restoration and mitigation leasing \u2014 that threatened to restrict productive use of the public lands.\u201d<\/p>\n
An example of the decision\u2019s impact can be found in the state of Montana. Roughly 950 American bison (Bison bison) have grazed on 63,000 acres (25,495 hectares) of federal land there since 2022. However, the DOI, which oversees BLM, revoked that grazing permit on May 8, just days before repealing the Public Lands Rule.<\/p>\n
Interior secretary Doug Burgman said that according to federal grazing laws, public land leases can only be given to animals, \u201cintended for use primarily for their meat, milk, or other animal products.\u201d He added that \u201cconsiderable evidence\u201d suggests the bison are intended for \u201cfor some other purpose, such as conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before western settlement, upwards of 100 million bison roamed the plains, serving as \u201cecosystem engineers\u202fshape[ing] healthy and diverse ecological communities,\u201d the DOI acknowledged in its 2020 Bison Conservation Initiative. Today, just 530,000 remain, mostly as livestock.<\/p>\n
Historically, bison were crucial to the survival of Native Americans across the western U.S. \u201cBison are our relatives. We have ancestral and spiritual obligations to care for them, as they do us,\u201d J. Garret Renville, chairman of the Native American Coalition of Large Tribes, wrote in a formal protest of the DOI decision. \u201cOur success as a people is dependent on their success. Our history, our futures, and our fates are intertwined.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alison Fox, CEO of American Prairie, the Montana-based NGO that owns the bison herd in question, said in a statement that \u201cthis decision abandons decades of consistent federal policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Western Watersheds Project, an Idaho-based NGO, said BLM is \u201cinventing a wholly new standard for livestock grazing permits in order to justify their pro-cattle bias.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renville said as the decision is written, \u201cit is unlikely that any tribal government or tribal citizen buffalo herd would ever be eligible for BLM grazing leases.\u201d<\/p>\n
The BLM has said American Prairie bison must be removed by Sept. 30. In an email to Mongabay, American Prairie said, \u201cwe are still waiting for a decision on our request for a preliminary injunction.\u201d<\/p>\n
BLM declined to comment since the case is pending litigation.<\/p>\n