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Public Lands Rule Federal Register (43 CFR Parts 1600 and 6100)

The Public Lands Rule helps ensure conservation is a key component of 21st-century public lands management, helping BLM protect our best and healthiest lands and waters, restore those that need it, and make informed management and development decisions based on the best available science and data, including Indigenous Knowledge.

by U.S. Department of the Interior

The Public Lands Rule builds on historic investments in public lands, waters, and clean energy deployment provided by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which recognizes the critical value of our public lands to all Americans. It also complements the President’s America the Beautiful initiative, a 10-year, locally-led, and nationally-scaled effort to protect, conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife that we all depend upon. 

The final rule comes amid growing pressures and historic challenges facing land managers. The impacts of climate change—including prolonged drought, increasing wildfires, and an influx of invasive species—pose increasing risks to communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. The Public Lands Rule will help the BLM navigate changing conditions on the ground and helping public lands continue to serve as economic drivers across the West. 

The BLM is implementing this final rule under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), as amended, and other relevant authorities. The aim is to further the BLM's mission of multiple uses and sustained yield by giving priority to the health and resilience of ecosystems across public lands. This rule emphasizes protecting intact landscapes, restoring degraded habitats, and making science-based management decisions to support ecosystem health and resilience. It applies land health standards to all BLM-managed public lands and uses, incorporates conservation tools within the multiple-use framework of FLPMA, and revises existing regulations to align with FLPMA's requirement of prioritizing the designation and protection of areas of critical environmental concern (ACECs). Additionally, the rule creates an overarching framework for multiple BLM programs to enhance ecosystem resilience on public lands. The final rule became effective on June 10, 2024.

Attached document published May 2024