A lawsuit has been filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation, Public Lands Council, National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn, American Sheep Industry Assn and 8 other groups challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s new Conservation and Landscape Health rule.
The final rule caused significant concern for grazers and other partner groups, because the rule:
- Upends decades of multiple-use management by elevating “conservation” as a “use on par” with other uses,
- Circumvents public processes that guard against unlawful restriction of access and use for Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and
- Facilitates the reduction of grazing by creating added conflicts between grazing permits/leases and newly-created “restoration and mitigation leases”.
The suit challenges the rule on three fronts:
- The rule exceeds BLM’s statutory authority in creating uses, leasing systems, and multiple-use prioritizations, and the authority to withdraw lands without public input or Congressional approval.
- The rule is arbitrary and capricious.
- The rule violates the National Environmental Policy Act
Download Public Lands Lawsuit (PDF)