A new rule focused on public lands conservation to protect against climate change is harming the environment in Utah and Wyoming, the states claimed in a court filing Thursday.

The states are challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule that allows conservation to be considered a “use” of public lands and begins a conservation leasing program as part of the agency’s “multiple use” mandate under the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act. The rule took effect in May.

The rule harms the environment because land restoration through “passive management” promoted by the leasing program helps to spread …