The Bureau of Land Management recently released two rules that alter how the agency manages its 245 million acres of public lands, 48 million of which are found in Nevada. The BLM s new Public Lands Rule will put conservation on par with other multiple uses, and the agency s Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process Rule revises outdated fiscal terms for oil and gas leasing operations. Nevada is home to four national parks which bring the state more than $280 million in economic benefit from tourism, according to the National Park Service. .
As critics work to roll back new Bureau of Land Management rules, public lands advocates are defending the agency s move to put conservation uses on equal footing with extraction and development. Matthew Kirby, senior director of energy and landscape conservation for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the new rules can be used to benefit national parks, for example, by reducing pollution from oil and gas drilling on the 3.3 million acres of BLM-managed mineral rights in eastern Colorado. "Thousands of feet higher than where the actual drilling is happening, you can go up to Rocky Mountain National Park," Kirby recounted. " .
Conservation groups, tribes and community organizers are praising President Joe Biden s decision Thursday to expand two national monuments in California. Together, the monuments will gain about 120,000 acres. The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument is 90 minutes northwest of Sacramento and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument lies just east of Los Angeles. .
The Bureau of Land Management recently released its final Public Lands Rule, which is set to put conservation on equal footing with other multiple uses taking place on public lands. The state of Utah has come out in opposition, pointing to the impact it could have on the almost 23 million acres of BLM land in Utah. Redge Johnson, director of the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office, said the state supports conservation efforts but called the rule a "solution looking for a problem." "What we have already put into conservation designations and then what you have for the acts that promote the conservation of the lands, why do you need to level that playing field?" Johnson questioned. .