As early as this week, the House of Representatives could vote on a plan that takes away the power of North Dakotans, undermines a system of balanced multiple use, and throws public lands management into chaos.

You only need to look back at the past month to know how popular public lands are in this country. Proposals in Congress to sell them off were soundly defeated after millions of public lands users – especially hunters and anglers – spoke up. What Congress is attempting to do now – using a destructive, rarely used tool called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) – could also have devastating consequences for our public lands.

It hasn’t gotten a lot of attention in the media, so let me explain what’s at stake. Our public lands are managed by agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management using resource management plans. Those plans are created by working with local stakeholders – ranchers, loggers, miners, hunters, anglers, and local business people – to write management guidelines that balance the many uses on public lands to ensure those lands can thrive and be used for generations to come.

The North Dakota Resource Management Plan was approved in January and established important safeguards for wildlife and recreation while identifying suitable locations for energy development, grazing, and other commercial activities. But now our Congressional delegation is leading the charge to destroy this plan by using the Congressional Review Act.

This extreme tool has never been used on management plans because doing so may actually violate the law, and because it sets a terrible precedent that could undermine a land management agency’s ability to effectively manage our public lands. The CRA allows Congress to negate agency rules with a simple majority vote, which can hinder the ability of agencies to address complex issues effectively. And managing our public lands IS complicated. There are so many users of our public lands and sometimes their needs conflict. Resource management plans are designed to keep everything in balance so the lands will continue to meet those needs.

Having Congress repeal a land management plan would create immediate uncertainty for ranchers, miners, and outdoor recreation businesses. It would cause economic upheaval in rural communities that depend on these public lands. A poll released by the National Wildlife Federation this spring showed that 75% of North Dakotans are opposed to Congress taking this action. Why is our Congressional delegation going against our wishes?

Employing the CRA is effectively a scorched earth policy. It not only revokes every single management guideline in that specific management plan, but it prevents the agency from ever putting forth any management plan that is substantially similar – something that will hinder uncontroversial management decisions forever. For example, the current RMP addressed a state and tribal concern about protecting the drinking water supply from the Missouri River. If the

CRA passes, future plans likely couldn’t include those protections. I doubt that anyone thinks it’s a good idea to hamstring an agency so drinking water can’t be protected.

There is already a process for making adjustments to resource management plans that has worked for decades. The Secretary of the Interior has the authority to review and revise resource management plans. If members of Congress were really interested in improving these plans, they should work with Secretary Burgum to make them better, rather than removing his authority to do so. Don’t blow up the system.