TAKE ACTION: SUPPORT BLM'S NEW PUBLIC LANDS RULE
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Show your support for the BLM’s new Public Lands Rule!
Please join the San Juan Citizens Alliance in showing our support for BLM’s new public lands rule on Conservation and Landscape Health. The new rule emphasizes the importance of conservation on federal public lands and creates and refines tools to protect wildlife habitat, cultural resources, and ecosystem services.
Here's how YOU can help:
Submit a comment to the BLM in support of the new rule. Comments are due June 20th!
Read more about the rule here.
Background:
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees more public land than any other land management agency. Our local field office, Tres Rios, manages more than 600,000 acres in southwestern Colorado – including Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, seven Wilderness Study Areas, and Animas City Mountain just north of Durango.
On the outskirts of Silverton, the BLM’s Gunnison Field Office manages the outstanding highlands of the Alpine Triangle – including Red Cloud, Sunshine, and Handies Peaks, the only 14ers on BLM land!
For nearly 40 years, the BLM has largely focused on industries like oil and gas, mining, and agricultural leasing, but neglected conservation, recreation, wildlife, fragile watersheds, and cultural resource protection.
The new Public Lands Rule would recognize conservation as an equally important use of BLM lands, clarify the rules around Areas of Critical Environmental Concern that protect important places like the Mesa Verde Escarpment, and establish conservation leasing as a new, market-based tool to safeguard our natural resources.
Across political parties, 82 percent of voters in the Rocky Mountain West support a national goal of conserving America’s lands and waters in the next decade. Today, the public has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help shape the future for BLM-managed public lands, our communities, and wildlife by participating in the Bureau of Land Management’s comment period. Please join SJCA in showing our support for this important step forward, and stay engaged in stewarding the public lands in our backyard.
Areas up for protection:
Sample Comment:
I am writing today to urge the Bureau of Land Management to adopt the proposed Conservation and Landscape Health Rule. I strongly support the steps the BLM is taking to address conservation of our natural and cultural resources nationally, and I want to encourage the BLM to continue moving in this direction.
As public lands across the country become increasingly degraded and fragmented, thoughtful conservation oriented stewardship is essential to maintain ecological connectivity and productive natural systems. Public lands play a critical role in conserving biodiversity, ensuring resilience to climate change, providing life sustaining ecosystem services, and preserving our cultural heritage for generations to come.
The draft Conservation and Landscape Health Rule is an important first step in acknowledging and protecting these important resources. I support the BLM’s recognition of conservation on equal footing with other multiple uses and support management to improve land health, conserve intact landscapes, and promote resilient ecosystems. Please adopt the proposed rule, and continue efforts to protect the ecological resources on our public lands.
Thank you for your time.
Questions?
Contact Public Lands Program Manager John Rader at john@sanjuancitizens.org.
