WEST Act of 2025 Kills New BLM Conservation Rule: Real-World Impacts on Public Lands

The Western Economic Security Today (WEST) Act of 2025, straight up, cancels a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule finalized in April 2024 (88 Fed. Reg. 19583) about Conservation and Landscape Health. This isn't a tweak or a change; the WEST Act prevents the rule from ever going into effect (Section 2).

Scrapping the Rulebook

The killed BLM rule was designed to guide how the agency balances conservation with other uses of public lands, like grazing, mining, and recreation. It aimed to promote ecosystem health and resilience, especially given climate change. By stopping this rule, the WEST Act essentially maintains the status quo—a situation that, arguably, hasn't always prioritized conservation.

Real-World Rollback

So, what does this mean on the ground? Think of a rancher whose grazing practices might have been adjusted under the new BLM rule to protect a sensitive riparian area. Under the WEST Act, those adjustments might not happen. Or consider a mining company seeking to expand operations on BLM land. The conservation rule could have imposed stricter environmental review; the WEST Act removes that possibility.

For instance, if the BLM rule had required a more thorough environmental impact assessment for new drilling leases, focusing on long-term water quality impacts, that requirement is now gone. Section 2 of the WEST Act directly prevents this. The practical effect? Potentially less scrutiny for activities that could affect water resources.

The Bigger Picture

This bill fits into a larger debate about how we use our public lands. The BLM manages vast stretches of the West, and the now-dead rule was intended to be a significant update to its management practices. The WEST Act signals a very different direction—one where existing regulations (or lack thereof) hold sway, and where the push for updated conservation measures is halted. The challenge will be balancing economic activities with the long-term health of these lands, and without the framework of the nixed rule, that balance may be harder to strike.