The Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday it plans to form an advisory panel to help guide the bureau as it works to implement its contentious public lands rule.
BLM also Thursday issued a series of internal guidance documents to bureau districts and field offices across the West addressing how to implement various components of the rule, such as the much-debated mitigation and restoration leasing program.
BLM characterized these moves as “next steps” in the process of implementing the sweeping rule that elevates conservation on par with other uses of bureau rangelands, such as livestock grazing, recreation and energy development.
“The public lands rule provides essential tools that will help the bureau improve and conserve the health of the lands we’ve been entrusted with for present and future generations,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a statement.
