in effect
This is a final rule from the Bureau of Land Management (part of the Interior Department) that completely cancels (“rescinds”) an earlier rule from 2024 called the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, sometimes called the Public Lands Rule. It takes effect on June 11, 2026. It directs the BLM to return to how it managed public lands before the 2024 rule, emphasizing “multiple use and sustained yield” over treating conservation as a standalone use of the land.
Rules for Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) revert to the 1983 framework, removing 2024 provisions such as interim/“temporary” management of nominated areas and a presumption favoring designation. The rule eliminates the ability of outside parties to obtain “restoration” or “mitigation” leases on public lands (removing 43 CFR 6102.4 and 6102.4.1). It also removes the 2024 rule’s Land Health Standards provisions—including a 10-year evaluation interval and fixed timelines—so those standards now apply only through existing grazing regulations. Monitoring continues under the BLM’s existing Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program, and existing cleanup, mitigation, and reclamation obligations for lessees are unchanged. The BLM adopted the change as proposed after reviewing 138,161 comment submissions (9,132 unique).
The rule covers roughly 245 million acres of BLM-managed public land, about one-tenth of U.S. land area. It affects BLM staff and public-land users such as ranchers (grazing), miners, and energy developers, as well as third parties who might have sought conservation-related leases, plus conservation groups, tribes, local governments, and recreational users who commented on the potential effects of designations and land-health provisions.