Conservation would no longer count as an official use of federal public lands under a plan announced today by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

On Wednesday, the agency declared its intent to rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s 2024 Public Lands Rule , which placed conservation on equal footing with uses such as natural gas drilling, mining, ranching, grazing, timber production and recreation.

The decision would effectively deny the use of public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management for any non-extractive purpose, opponents say.

“With this announcement, the administration is saying that public lands should be managed primarily for the good of powerful drilling, mining and development interests,” Alison Flint, senior legal director at The Wilderness Society, said in

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