Public Lands

Fights over public lands aren’t unusual in the West. But Utah is now going straight to the U.S. Supreme Court to wrest control of 18.5 million acres of federal land.

The guidance documents tell state and field office managers across the West how to carry out the new rule, which officially went into effect in June.

The Andrus Center for Public Policy hosts an annual conference on the environment and public lands

The Western Solar Plan added five more states, meaning more public land has been identified for future projects. But there are concerns over the effect on hunting and fishing on some of these lands.

Popular recreation areas across the Mountain West are proposing price hikes for campsites, backcountry permits, parking spots and other amenities. Public land agencies say they’re responding to increased wear and tear on trails and facilities.

Backcountry Conservation Areas are a relatively new land management tool established by the Department of Interior in 2017 to “support wildlife-dependent recreation and hunting opportunities and facilitate the long-term maintenance of big game wildlife populations.” A major, 120,800-acre BCA was just established near Boise, the largest of the handful created so far.

Last week, a federal judge in Utah handed the Biden administration a legal win when it dismissed a suit from the state of Utah claiming that the president had overstepped his legal authority when he restored two national monuments.

Seventy-six wildlife conservation groups have petitioned the Department of the Interior to ban the use of M-44s on Bureau of Land Management lands. The devices, commonly known as “cyanide bombs,” remain a controversial tool for predator mitigation.

The public comment period for the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed public lands rule closed this week, with well over 200,000 people weighing in. The Center for Western Priorities, which supports the proposal, analyzed those comments and found that an overwhelming majority was supportive.

Overcrowding and vandalism may be putting Idaho public lands at risk.