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Restore Conservation to America's Public Lands Before It's Too Late
Final signature count: 546
546 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Rainforest Site
Your public lands just lost their last conservation protection — sign now.
For generations, the Bureau of Land Management operated under a clear, unspoken priority: extractive industries first, conservation second. The 2024 Conservation and Landscape Health Rule changed that, formally placing ecological stewardship alongside mining, drilling, and grazing as a recognized use of the 245 million acres the BLM manages for all Americans. On May 12, 2026, the Trump administration published a formal rescission of that rule in the Federal Register — and the framework was gone.7
What the Rule Actually Did
The rule was not a moratorium on extraction. It created a structure for restoration leasing — agreements allowing conservation organizations to hold leases for habitat recovery and landscape health, mirroring the lease structures long available to energy companies. It also required land managers to incorporate ecological health into planning in a systematic, accountable way. As Inside Climate News reported, it was the first formal effort to put conservation on equal administrative footing with industries that have long dominated BLM decision-making.1 The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University noted that the rescission removed protections built to address habitat fragmentation, drought resilience, and the long-term health of Western ecosystems.4
The Rescission Did Not Come Alone
The elimination of the rule arrived alongside a broader dismantling of public lands protections. Mondaq documented how the administration simultaneously moved to expand oil and gas leasing across the West, removing buffer zones and environmental review requirements near sensitive habitats.5 Montana Free Press reported deep concern in Western communities about the pace of these changes and the absence of any replacement framework for managing landscape health.6
The Gap Left Behind
FLPMA, the federal law that has governed BLM lands since 1976, mandates multiple-use management — but it does not explicitly name conservation as one of those uses. The 2024 rule was an attempt to fill that gap administratively. Now that it's gone, there is no mechanism within the BLM framework to counterbalance accelerating development pressure. The Sierra Club has warned that millions of acres face accelerated degradation with no administrative check in place.2 Conservation organizations have already filed suit over BLM oil and gas lease approvals in Colorado and Wyoming, arguing the agency is moving without adequate environmental review.3
What Needs to Happen Now
Advocates and legal experts are calling for two actions: an interim administrative order from the Secretary of the Interior reinstating core landscape-health and restoration-leasing provisions while litigation proceeds, and congressional action to amend FLPMA to explicitly name conservation as a mandated use — closing a statutory gap that has left land managers without the legal grounding to prioritize ecosystem health when conditions demand it.
These lands belong to every American. Clean water, wildlife habitat, and climate resilience across the West depend on what happens to them next.
Sign the petition now to urge the Secretary of the Interior to issue an interim order restoring conservation protections — and to call on Congress to make those protections permanent.
