Rescinding the BLM Conservation and Landscape Health Rule

House Natural Resources Committee
1324 Longworth

15/06/2023 at 09:00AM

The Committee on Natural Resources will hold a legislative hearing on H.R. 3397 (Rep. Curtis), to require the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw a rule of the Bureau of Land Management relating to conservation and landscape health, on Thursday, June 15 at 9:00 a.m. in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building.

Hearing memo

Witnesses

Panel I (Bill Sponsor):

  • John Curtis, Utah’s 3rd Congressional District

Panel II (State Elected Officials):

  • Kristi Noem, Governor of South Dakota
  • Mark Gordon, Governor of Wyoming

Panel III (Administration and Non-Government Outside Witnesses):

  • Nada Wolff Culver, Principal Deputy Director, Bureau of Land Management
  • Kathleen Sgamma, President, Western Energy Alliance
  • Kathy Chandler-Henry, Board Chair, Eagle County Board of Commissioners, Eagle, Colorado

On April 3, 2023, the BLM published in the Federal Register a proposed rule, “Conservation and Landscape Health,” (“Rule”) with a 75-day comment period. The Rule would broadly allow the BLM to lease lands under new conservation leases, incorporate new standards when evaluating traditional multiple use decisions, expedite designations of new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs), and apply land health standards to all public lands.