The House of Representatives took a rare unanimous vote earlier in April to pass outdoor recreation legislation supported by BHA, showing bipartisan commitment to the outdoor recreation community. Throughout this month, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service released a flurry of significant conservation announcements, many long championed by BHA and our members. Seemingly having forgotten the wide applause for their bipartisan legislation earlier in the month, the House of Representatives quickly responded by scheduling votes to overturn those actions and others finalized more than a year ago.

Thompson Divide Mineral Withdrawal Finalized in Colorado

On April 3, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior announced the 20-year administrative mineral withdrawal for approximately 220,000 acres of the Thompson Divide along Colorado’s Western Slope. This would prohibit new oil and gas leasing as well as mining.

The Thompson Divide mineral withdrawal will protect highly valued and intact big game habitat fragmentation in addition to the headwaters for native trout streams. BHA and our Colorado chapter have been working for years to conserve these wild public lands and waters, resulting in this monumental win.

“For more than a decade, hunters and anglers in Colorado have sought to conserve the remarkable fish and wildlife habitat within the Thompson Divide, a region that encompasses 34,000 acres of critical migratory corridors for elk and the headwaters for 1,550 miles of streams home to native trout. We share our appreciation with the Department of Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture for their action to protect a total of more than 200,000 acres of public lands for the next twenty years,” said David Lien, Co-Chair of the Colorado chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. “Only Congress can permanently protect this valuable landscape, and we continue to urge the passage of Sen. Bennet and Rep. Neguse’s CORE Act to do just that.”

Read BHA’s press release here.

House Unanimously Passes Outdoor Recreation Legislation

On April 9, the House of Representatives passed the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act under a voice vote without objection. This bipartisan legislation, led by Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Ranking Member Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) is substantially similar to the America’s Outdoor Recreation Act unanimously advanced by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in May of 2023.

BHA has supported this comprehensive package which would provide important benefits for hunters and anglers by modernizing the management our lands and waters and establishing greater public access through the following:

• Expediting and simplifying permitting for accessing public lands and waters, which would reduce costs, wait times, and red tape by creating a uniform permitting process while also eliminating fees and permits for small groups filming on public lands.
• Improving outdoor recreation data and infrastructure, including updating vehicle-use maps on public lands within five years, and requiring their continued updates within twenty years.
• Creating feeless public shooting ranges in each BLM district or national forest, offering more opportunities for individuals to prepare for hunting seasons. In addition to establishing appropriate and accessible facilities for safe shooting, this would help to consolidate recreational shooting taking place on our public lands and resulting litter.
• Authorizing the donation of hides, horns, and antlers harvested from wildlife management activities within the National Park System to the hunter. This would avoid the waste of wildlife and fully respect harvested animals.
• Establishing a grant program for the inspection and decontamination of watercraft to avoid the spread of aquatic invasive species, while allowing federal agencies to carry out those activities.

A section-by-section summary of the EXPLORE Act can be found here.

Read BHA’s press release here.

BLM Oil and Gas Leasing Rule Finalized

On April 12, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a final rule that will help to avoid conflict between oil and gas leasing and wildlife habitat on public lands enjoyed by hunters and anglers. This is particularly important given that of the 245 million acres stewarded by the BLM, 90% of those acres are open to oil and gas leasing. Of that 90%, approximately 25 million acres are currently leased. The rule builds on reforms supported by BHA and included in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

The new rule directs the BLM to prioritize oil and gas leasing near existing infrastructure or in areas with high potential for oil and gas production. This guidance will conserve undeveloped landscapes with significant value for wildlife. This approach will manage the extraction of natural resources and disturbance of habitat in a responsible way.

Several fiscal reforms are made by the rule including increased royalty rates, bond rates, minimum bid fees, and rental rates, as well as new expression of interest fees. These changes will both ensure oil and gas companies cover the remediation of retired and abandoned wells, rather than taxpayers.

Together, the new regulations and fiscal reforms will reduce incentives to lease federal public lands rather than state lands, and halt speculative and noncompetitive leasing. Those practices comprise of nearly half of all oil and gas leases on our public lands and prevent the BLM from properly managing for other values under their multiple-use mandate, including wildlife and conservation.

It is critical that we approach oil and gas development on our public lands in a balanced way that recognizes the importance of intact wildlife habitat including migratory corridors and winter range.

Read BHA’s blog here.

BLM Finalizes New Conservation Rule

On April 18, the final Public Lands Rule was released by the Bureau of Land Management. The rule will elevate conservation as a valid use of public lands stewarded by the BLM, along with grazing, mining, energy development, and other uses. Valuing the conservation of intact habitat on par with other uses provides an unparalleled opportunity for the BLM to improve resiliency at a time when intense drought, severe wildfires, and encroaching invasive species threaten our public lands.

The rule further directs the BLM to consider land health assessments in decision-making and emphasizes the role of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern where special management attention is required to protect vulnerable landscapes. Doing so will give improve the ability of the BLM to manage for intact wildlife habitat including big game migration corridors and restore of natural resources degraded by wildfire, invasive species, and drought.

The rule saw changes following feedback, including from the hunting and angling community, that would provide greater clarity on the process originally termed “conservation leasing” and distinguish between the two refined categories known as “mitigation leasing” and “restoration leasing.” These new and innovative management tools allow for companies to offset impacts from development as well as stewardship projects to improve wildlife habitat. More information can be found here.

Read BHA’s press release here.

Read more in Field & Stream here.

Administration Releases Arctic Conservation Rule, Steps to Prevent Ambler Road

On April 19, the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska Conservation Rule was finalized. This rule will strengthen oil and gas regulations in the NPR-A and maximizes the conservation of roughly 13 million acres of designated Special Areas: Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon, and Peard Bay. This includes vast habitat for the Western Arctic and Teshekpuk caribou herds, as well as the nesting grounds for tens of thousands of waterfowl identified as globally significant areas.

The rule also establishes that will allow the consideration of adding resource values to existing Special Areas, expanding Special Areas, or creating new Special Areas.

At the same time, the BLM released their final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, with the preferred action being to deny the permit for the Ambler Road. Alaska’s Brooks Range could be permanently altered by the proposed Ambler Road. The private 211-mile industrial east to west corridor would facilitate the development of at least four mostly large, open-pit mines by foreign interests. The industrial road plan would have bisected habitat for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd and cross nearly 3,000 streams and rivers, impacting key watersheds like the Kobuk and Koyukuk.

As a part of the Hunters & Anglers for the Brooks Range coalition, BHA continues to advocate strongly to deny the permit for the Ambler Road and keep this expansive landscape intact.

Read BHA’s press release on the NPR-A Conservation Rule here.

Read BHA’s press release on the Ambler Road Project here.

House Set to Rollback Conservation Achievements

On April 30 and May 1, the House of Representatives will vote on a slate of legislation that would reverse conservation wins championed by BHA and weaken protections for public lands and waters. We are working to oppose these bills and other potential threats to conservation supported by hunters and anglers.

• The WEST Act (H.R. 3397), led by Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), would overturn the recently announced BLM Public Lands Rule. This rule elevates conservation as a value on par with other uses such as grazing, mining, and energy development on our largest public lands estate. It would conserve intact habitat, restore degraded landscapes, and require landscape health assessments in decision-making by the Bureau of Land Management.
• The Superior National Forest Restoration Act (H.R. 3195), led by Rep. Stauber (R-MN), would overturn the 20-year mineral withdrawal that halted the proposed Twin Metals mine and protected the Boundary Waters, America's most visited wilderness area, from regionally untested sulfide-ore copper mining. It would also reissue previously canceled leases and arbitrarily preclude those leases and permits from judicial review.
• The Alaska’s Right to Produce Act (H.R. 6285), also led by Rep. Stauber, would reinstate oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, calving ground for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, was opened to oil and gas leasing in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act despite being proposed for wilderness designation. This bill would also overturn the recently announced NPR-A Conservation Rule, which maximized protections for previously designated Special Areas that provide habitat for the Teshekpuk and Western Arctic caribou herds.
• The Mining Regulatory Clarity Act (H.R. 2925), led by Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), would make all mining claims valid on public lands and guarantee an absolute right to all mining activities including prospecting, exploration, and associated development. In areas we consider "protected" it would be unlawful to deny mining and exploration activities, even without a prior discovery of a valuable mineral deposit.

Take action here.

Read more here in Field & Stream.