The Biden administration is proposing that conservationists be allowed to lease public land. Tracy stone Manning, the head of the U.S. bureau of land management, says the administration proposal would make conservation and equal priority, conservation groups or others would be allowed to buy leases to restore government land just as oil companies by leases to drill or ranchers lease range land for grazing. It's happened before on a limited basis, but there has been no dedicated program for it. The idea is stirring debate over the best use of millions of acres of taxpayer owned property in the west, some Republican lawmakers attacked the idea as a backdoor way to shut out mining energy and agricultural interests. Senator John barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, attacked the proposed rule as making non