The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final “Public Lands Rule” balances conservation alongside other public land uses like grazing, mining, oil and gas extraction, and the usage of solar and other renewables. This rule restores balance to the stewardship of our public lands, which all U.S. citizens are owners of, by giving equal standing to the conservation of these lands. The BLM manages over 245 million acres of public lands across the U.S., all of which support fish and wildlife species, safeguard cultural resources, and provide communities with energy and water, as well as recreational opportunities like hunting, hiking, and fishing.

To date, only 12 percent of the 12 million acres managed by the BLM in Arizona have been protected for their outstanding conservation values. “The new public lands rule gives the agency the tools it needs to restore degraded ecosystems so that the wildlife, outdoor recreation, and rural communities that depend on healthy public lands can thrive for generations to come,” says Scott Garlid, Executive Director of the Arizona Wildlife Federation.

A critical piece of the BLM’s Public Lands Rule is the ability to lease lands for conservation and restoration. These restoration leases allow the BLM to lease acres for the purpose of restoring them in the same way a mineral lease would allow for mining. Michael Cravens, Advocacy and Conservation Director of the Arizona Wildlife Federation, explains, “A solar company could lease acres for restoration in order to mitigate the impact of the solar field, or a hunting organization could lease acres to remove invasive species in a big game migration corridor.”

The Arizona Wildlife Federation heartily supports these rule changes and thanks the BLM for their ongoing stewardship of our public lands and forward thinking with reasonable policies like the Public Lands Rule.