[Cyclopath]

Through June 20, the Bureau of Land Management is accepting comments on a public land proposal that the agency put conservation priorities — e.g., ecological health and the “resilience of renewable resources” — on equal footing with long-established agency objectives such as livestock grazing and oil, gas and coal leasing. More specifically, the proposed rule would establish conservation as a “use” under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in an effort to “protect intact landscapes, restore degraded habitat, and make wise management decisions based on science and data.” As proposed, the new rule would allow the BLM to lease land for conservation purposes to tribal governments, non-governmental organizations, individuals or businesses. According to an Interior Department release, such leases could be used to protect wildlife migration corridors, for example, or establish carbon markets. In the latter example, the BLM might accept payment for a 10-year lease to leave grassland undisturbed for carbon sequestration. https://montanafreepress.org/2023/05/26/blm-weighs-conservation-rule/

[Ski]

^ or.... they might let grasslands just be grasslands so they can be just grasslands and support those ecosystems that wild grasslands support (when they're not being overrun with cows.)