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The proposed rule would clarify and support the principles of multiple use and sustained yield in the management of the public lands, incorporating climate resiliency and restoration through conservation and preservation in the management of the public lands pursuant to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and other relevant authorities. The proposed rule is within 43 CFR 6000 and would provide an overarching framework that would cover multiple resource areas to ensure land health and sustained yield.

Statement of Need:

The principles of multiple use and sustained yield management govern the BLM’s stewardship of America’s public lands. This proposed rule interprets and implements a vital component of the BLM’s multiple use and sustained yield mission: addressing landscape resilience and using restoration and conservation as tools to ensure sustainable and productive natural resources for future generations. Identifying tools, standards, and procedures to appropriately achieve sustained yield is particularly important to ensure that the BLM can pursue is multiple use mission and maintain sustained yield in the face of the challenges posed by climate change, drought, fire, land use changes, and other factors impacting the health of land, waters, and ecosystems. This proposed rule addresses those concerns, defines conservation, and provides an operational definition of sustained yield in the context of changing landscapes. This rule also provides a framework for decision-making to appropriately implement conservation, including by identifying best practices to conserve and restore lands and waters to desired conditions based on land health standards and best available science. These proposed regulations will promote restoration opportunities with significant public involvement, honor the Bureau’s commitment to work closely with Tribes and other governmental entities, and respond more effectively to changing resource conditions and increasing demands on public lands and waters. Further, this rule will expand Areas of Critical Environmental Concern regulations to affirm statutory requirements.

Summary of the Legal Basis:

Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) provides BLM authority for the protection of ecological values (section 102(8)), the preservation of certain lands in their natural condition (section 102(8)), and the establishment of fish and wildlife development and utilization as one of six principal or major uses of public lands (section 103(l)). These mandates in FLPMA provide BLM with general authority to conserve ecosystems across its 245 million acres of public lands. FLPMA section 302(a), provides: The Secretary shall manage the public lands under principles of multiple use and sustained yield ... except that where a tract of such public land has been dedicated to specific uses according to any other provisions of law it shall be managed in accordance with such law 43 U.S.C. 1732(a) (emphasis added). The multiple use and sustained yield principles in section 102(a)(8) authorizes the BLM to implement the policies set forth in this rulemaking effort.

Alternatives:

N/A

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

TBD

Risks:

TBD