PIERRE, S.D.(Press Release) – Governor Noem will testify before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources on Thursday, June 15, in favor of HR 3397. This bill would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to abandon the proposed rule on “Conservation and Landscape Health.”

“Washington bureaucrats don’t know how to manage land better than the South Dakotans who have been stewarding it for centuries. But Joe Biden’s Administration is pursuing a regulatory land grab,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “Their proposed rule will result in poorly managed federal lands, which will devastate conservation and management efforts, harm our wildlife, slow economic growth, and endanger public safety.”

The Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rule elevates conservation practices as a “use” within the Federal Land Policy and Management Act multiple-use framework without Congressional authority. BLM intends to pursue this through so-called conservation leases for both protection and restoration activities. This proposed rule would fundamentally change the way multiple use and sustained yield mandates are carried out.

Governor Mark Gordon of Wyoming will also be testifying. Governor Noem has previously worked with Governor Gordon on several issues pertaining to land management, such as the Biden Administration’s overregulation of the Black Hills timber industry.

The Biden Administration could use this proposed rule change to determine currently permitted activities on BLM lands are incompatible with a conservation lease or areas identified as “intact landscapes.” This could include loss of grazing, energy production, and recreation – all of which are essential to the South Dakota way of life.

HR 3397 was introduced by Congressmen John Curtis (R-UT), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), and Russ Fulcher (R-ID).