Today, the Department of Interior (DOI) announced today that it will fully rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule, reversing a policy that recognized conservation as an essential part of the agency’s multiple-use mission.

The Public Lands Rule was finalized in 2024 after years of public engagement, including from Outdoor Alliance and our member organization. The Rule was intended to modernize how the BLM manages 245 million acres of public land. Healthy public lands and waters are essential for outdoor recreation, wildlife habitat, clean water, and resilient local economies, and the rule helped the BLM better manage for conservation and recreation, alongside other uses like energy development, grazing, mining, and recreation.

Outdoor Alliance helped shape the initial rule and strongly opposed efforts to rescind it. We submitted detailed comments to the Department of the Interior last fall urging the agency to preserve and improve the policy rather than eliminate it entirely.

“The Public Lands Rule was a long-overdue effort to modernize how the Bureau of Land Management approaches conservation, recreation, and development on public lands,” said Adam Cramer, CEO of Outdoor Alliance. “Rescinding it is a missed opportunity to manage public lands with the precision and balance these landscapes deserve. Instead of recognizing that we can have thriving recreation, healthy landscapes, and responsible development together, the administration decided to take a time machine back to the late 1800s — putting extraction first at the expense of the wealth of input, expertise, and experience of local communities and recreationists.”

Outdoor recreation is one of the most common ways Americans experience public lands. Nationally, outdoor recreation contributes more than $1.3 trillion to the economy and supports nearly 5 million jobs. BLM lands alone contain more than 25,000 miles of trails, more than 23,000 climbing routes and boulder problems, and thousands of miles of whitewater rivers.

Throughout the Public Lands Rule process, Outdoor Alliance advocated for an approach that both protected conservation values and ensured continued access for sustainable recreation. In comments on both the proposed and final rules, Outdoor Alliance emphasized that recreation and conservation are deeply connected: climbers, paddlers, mountain bikers, hikers, and other recreationists depend on healthy, intact landscapes and watersheds. We also advocated for the rule to incorporate strong public engagement and local input into land management decisions. The final rule reflected many of those recommendations, including explicit recognition that sustainable outdoor recreation is compatible with conservation management.

Outdoor Alliance will continue advocating for public lands policies that reflect the full range of values Americans expect from their public lands and for a vision of the future of public lands that supports conservation, recreation access, healthy ecosystems, and sustainable local economies.

Department of the Interior Rescinds BLM Public Lands Rule