Colorado Democrats in Congress on Monday asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to keep in place a 2024 rule that allows federal public lands to be leased for environmental protection, which the Trump administration intends to rescind.

The Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, commonly referred to as the Public Lands Rule, directed the Bureau of Land Management to identify and support landscapes in need of restoration and created leases that focus on protecting natural areas. The BLM manages more than 8 million acres of land in Colorado.

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BLM already had leasing processes in place for extractive industries including energy development, mining and livestock grazing, and the Public Lands Rule balanced those priorities with conservation efforts, rule supporters say.

U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and U.S. Representatives Diana DeGette of Denver, Joe Neguse of Lafayette, Jason Crow of Aurora and Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and BLM Acting Director Bill Groffy to reverse course on a proposal to rescind the Public Lands Rule, which the Democrats say would make it easier to sell off public lands for mining and drilling.

“The Public Lands Rule was developed to provide balance in how the BLM fulfills its multiple-use and sustained yield mission,” the letter says. “It ensures that conservation, recreation, and local input are appropriately considered alongside grazing, energy development, and other uses. The rule updates BLM management for the 21st century and puts in place important safeguards to ensure that land health is accounted for in management decisions.”

Hickenlooper led a separate letter from a larger group of Congressional Democrats asking Burgum and the BLM to end its plans to overturn the Public Lands Rule.

Monday was the last day for members of the public to submit comments on whether they support rescinding the rule. A Center for Western Priorities analysis found that 98 percent of the more than 40,000 comments submitted as of Monday morning opposed the Trump administration’s plan to rescind the rule.

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Conservation groups including Rocky Mountain Wild, the Western Slope Conservation Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Conservation Lands Foundation support keeping the Public Lands Rule in place. More than 100 local elected officials from across Colorado also signed a letter opposing its repeal.

“In La Plata County, our public lands are the backbone of our economy and the heart of our outdoor way of life,” Matt Salka, a La Plata County commissioner, said in a statement. “We celebrated when BLM recognized that conservation of these irreplaceable landscapes deserves equal standing alongside agriculture, energy development, and other uses. We are deeply concerned to see that hard-won balance now at risk.”

The energy industry and agriculture producers support rescinding the rule, according to the DOI. Several farming and mining organizations sued the BLM challenging the rule shortly after it was implemented last year.

The Democrats said that Colorado ranchers, sportsmen, small business owners and gateway communities depend on access to healthy public landscapes, and rescinding the Public Lands Rule could “jeopardize these livelihoods by increasing the likelihood of land degradation, reduced recreational access, and economic instability for rural communities.”

The rule also strengthens the BLM’s ability to protect water resources in Colorado, the letter says, empowering land managers to make watersheds more resilient against wildfire, drought and other threats.

“Eliminating it would leave our water resources more vulnerable at a time when resiliency is urgently needed,” the letter says.