The interior department is canceling a rule that put conservation on equal footing with development, as Donald Trump’s administration eases restrictions on industries and seeks to boost drilling, logging, mining and grazing on taxpayer-owned land. The 2024 rule adopted under Joe Biden was meant to refocus the interior department’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees about 10% of land in the US. It allowed public property to be leased for restoration. … Bobby McEnaney with the Natural Resources Defense Council said repealing the rule “means less protection for the clean drinking water, less protection for endangered wildlife that depend on healthy habitat, and less accountability when corporations leave these landscapes damaged and degraded.”

Related articles:

• The New York Times: Trump administration to scrap rule that elevated land conservation
• Tucson Sentinel (Ariz.): Enviros criticize Trump administration change to grazing rules