Conservation and Landscape Health

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) promulgates this final rule, pursuant to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), as amended, and other relevant authorities, to advance the BLM's multiple use and sustained yield mission by prioritizing the health and resilience of ecosystems across public lands. To support ecosystem health and resilience, the rule provides that the BLM will protect intact landscapes, restore degraded habitat, and make informed management decisions based on science and data. To support these activities, the rule applies land health standards to all BLM-managed public lands and uses, codifies conservation tools to be used within FLPMA's multiple-use framework, and revises existing regulations to better meet FLPMA's requirement that the BLM prioritize designating and protecting areas of critical environmental concern (ACECs). The rule also provides an overarching framework for multiple BLM programs to facilitate ecosystem resilience on public lands.