California Leaders Applaud BLM Rule to Protect Local Areas (2024)

LOS ANGELES– After prioritizing extractive industries for the past 40 years, today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its final “Public Lands Rule” to balance and uphold itsmultiple-use mission. The Biden administration’s new framework places cultural lands protection, conservation, access to nature, wildlife, and climate change mitigation on equal footing with industrial development across the West.

The BLM oversees15% of all land in California. These public lands provide clean drinking water and fresh air, wildlife habitat, destinations for outdoor recreation, and hold innumerable cultural sites and areas valued by Indigenous communities.

The new rule will help residents near public lands adapt to extreme weather events and habitat loss by strengthening existing conservation standards and providing other management tools. The rule will also help guide the BLM’s upcoming work to prioritize conservation of public lands for future generations, including in their finalNorthwest California Integrated Plan.

This new direction for the agency is widely popular in the state and beyond. California officials, including Senator Alex Padilla, Representative Jared Huffman, Governor Gavin Newsom, and Secretary Wade Crowfoot have advocated in support of the rule.

In response, advocates and community leaders across California released the following statements:

Jeff Kuyper, Executive Director of Los Padres ForestWatch, said: “This rule will usher in a new era of conservation for public lands throughout California and the West. We look forward to working with this administration to implement the new rule as quickly as possible, for the benefit of our climate, our wildlife, and our communities.”

Wendy Schneider, Executive Director of Friends of the Inyo, said: “Friends of the Inyo commends BLM for implementing a regulatory scheme that better recognizes the importance of our public lands in maintaining our nation's healthy ecosystems, economy, and quality of life. Friends of the Inyo is especially pleased that the new rule encourages increased opportunities for co-stewardship and co-management with Tribal Nations who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial.”

Mahtisa Djahangiri, Campaign Strategist at Sierra Club California, said: “The Biden Administration’s Public Lands Rule is an important step towards solving the biodiversity and climate crises and achieving California’s 30x30 goals. This rule offers a rare opportunity to prioritize a healthy environment and economic future for California, as well as ensure that our public lands are an integral part of the climate solution. We look forward to the swift implementation of the Public Lands Rule to protect the critically important lands that provide life support systems to our communities and wildlife.”

Dan Smuts, Senior Regional Director at The Wilderness Society, said: "The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) new Public Lands Rule brings balance to its management by affirming that conservation, access to nature, and cultural resource protection are on equal footing with extractive uses. This balanced approach will bolster the BLM’s ability to identify and conserve important lands across California thereby protecting important values and supporting the landscape connectivity that is vital in the face of climate change.”

Dave Polivy, Mayor of Truckee, California and Co-owner of Tahoe Mountain Sports, said, "Our nation’s protected public lands are tremendous assets to our Western communities. As both a local elected official and outdoor industry business owner, I am thankful that the Bureau of Land Management Public Lands Rule will use conservation mechanisms that will better support outdoor recreation, local economies, and tourism industries as well as provide certainty for rural and gateway communities to make long-term investments. I commend the Bureau of Land Management for recognizing the critical role protected public lands play in our way of life and that they support our outdoor recreation and tourism economies, health, and well-being. They help make the communities where we live what they are while contributing to a healthier and better tomorrow for future generations.”

Mark Green, Interim Executive Director at CalWild (formerly the California Wilderness Coalition), said: "We applaud the Biden administration’s decision to implement the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Public Lands Rule to address nature loss and climate change, preserve cultural areas, better protect wildlife habitat, and safeguard outdoor access and recreational opportunities. The Rule is long overdue. The Public Lands Rule clarifies that BLM is to manage its lands in a manner that puts conservation on equal footing with other uses of those lands. Nearly 40% of all U.S. public lands (and about 15% of those lands in California) are overseen by the BLM. We commend the Biden administration for recognizing the importance of our nation's public lands to our environment, local economies and quality of life.”

Ruth Nolan, Professor and former BLM California Desert District wildland firefighter, said: "As a college educator, former BLM California Desert District wildland firefighter, and resident of California's Mojave Desert since the 1970's, I am strongly in support of the Public Lands Rule. The rule prioritizes Areas of Critical Environmental Concern designations such as at Juniper Flats ACEC, an area adjacent to the urbanized Victor Valley and impacted for decades with mining, heavy off-road vehicle use, vandalism, and wildfires which have been crucial in protecting critical ecologic and indigenous resources. The Public Lands Rule will finally bring balance to the BLM's multiple-use mission by putting conservation, cultural lands protection, access to nature, wildlife, and climate change mitigation on equal footing with extraction. The Public Lands Rule is essential to help protect our extensive resources, not exploit them, and will help maintain the health and resilience of these precious lands so that our current and next generations including my own young grandchildren, will come to know our BLM-managed public desert lands as places of beauty and regeneration and shared cultural learning landscapes integral to our public's heritage, not as a degraded wasteland.”