A milestone was achieved in environmental conservation this month, and it has the potential to boost water health, wildlife protections and climate action across much of western Colorado.
The Bureau of Land Management has long offered public land leases for industry, such as oil and gas development and other extractive uses. These activities destroy natural features and contribute to pollution.
Now the agency will offer new kinds of leases for conservation. The purposes of the leases will be to restore public lands and protect them from harm.
The potential environmental benefits of the so-called Public Lands Rule could be tremendous. The BLM manages more than 244 million acres across mostly Western states, or one-tenth of America’s land. The new rule comes at a time when the West increasingly faces water depletion, wildfire risk, habitat loss and other crises.
But the Public Lands Rule at this stage is only a promise of improvements. Republican opponents are working to reverse the rule, and, even if they fail, fulfillment of its benefits depends on how federal managers choose to implement it.
Conservation has in fact been part of the BLM’s mandate for decades. The agency’s roots go back to the country’s founding, when its lands were used to encourage western expansion.
In 1976, adoption of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act established the BLM’s modern “multiple-use and sustained yield” mission. The law ensured that part of the agency’s mission is to “protect the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archeological values.”
The new conservation leases help advance that vision.
The rule creates two kinds of new leases, for restoration and mitigation. A restoration lease could be used to return public land that has been degraded to a natural state. A mitigation lease could be used by a developer to offset damage it causes in one area with protections in another.
An expanded conservation program could help counteract the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and promote resiliency for wildlife, water resources and other natural features.
A BLM fact sheet says lease takers might be “individuals, businesses, non-governmental organizations, Tribal governments, conservation districts, or state fish and wildlife agencies” but not “foreign persons or entities.”
The fact sheet offers examples: Say a solar energy developer’s infrastructure disturbs wilderness on BLM land, and the agency says the developer should seek offsetting mitigation. That could be accomplished with a mitigation lease that restores or protects wilderness elsewhere. Or say a nonprofit wants to improve mule deer habitat. It could seek a restoration lease and foster new habitat on BLM property.
There is much potential for conservation in Colorado. The state ranks 10th for the amount of BLM land within its borders, and more than one-tenth of Colorado is managed by the BLM.
The rule could put the agency in a better position to respond to the climate crisis. Extractive uses of BLM lands in Colorado and elsewhere have contributed to global warming, but an expanded conservation program could help counteract the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and promote resiliency for wildlife, water resources and other natural features.
“The West is sort of transitioning from a traditional extractive economy to a more diversified economy that includes a big pillar, which could be labeled as recreation and tourism, which relies on protecting some of the natural values on public lands,” said Peter Hart, legal director for Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop, which participated in the conservation leases rule-making process.
More than 90% of public comments to the BLM supported the Public Lands Rule, Hart said.
Now individual Coloradans, nonprofit organizations and state officials have a new avenue by which to pursue commitments to climate action and conservation goals. Implementation of the rule is partly in their hands, and they should make use of it to the greatest possible extent.
Quentin Young is editor of Colorado Newsline, where this commentary was first published on April 25.
