WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Grazing Legislation a Gift to Public Lands Ranchers

Bill Prioritizes Ranching over Environment
Contact: Mark Salvo (503) 757-4221

Six Senate Republicans have introduced the “Grazing Improvement Act of 2011” (S. 1129) in Congress, a bill that would further entrench domestic livestock grazing on federal public lands to the detriment of fish, wildlife, watersheds and other public values.

“It’s Christmas in June for public lands ranchers,” said Mark Salvo, director of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign for WildEarth Guardians. “This abominable bill effectively prioritizes livestock grazing above wildlife and clean water on our public lands.” 

The legislation would modify grazing management on 260 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service lands by:

• Extending the term of grazing permits and leases from ten to twenty years, thereby reducing by half the amount of environmental review a given permit may receive over two decades.

• Exempting certain permits and leases from environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act.

• Allowing continued use of grazing allotments even while appeals are pending over the adequacy of the environmental analysis of the grazing permit or lease.

• Providing grazing permittees and lessees a special process to appeal adverse grazing decisions, while denying the public the same process to challenge grazing decisions that may harm the environment.

Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt recognized livestock grazing as “the most damaging use of public land.” On grasslands, deserts and forests across the West, millions of non-native livestock remove and trample vegetation, imperil species, damage soil, spread invasive weeds, despoil water, deprive native wildlife of forage and shelter, accelerate desertification and even contribute to global warming.

While causing extensive environmental damage, public lands ranching offers few benefits, even to those in the livestock business: only 3% our nation’s beef supply comes from federal public lands and only 3% of American ranchers are federal grazing permittees—many of whom make little to no profit despite annual federal subsidies totaling at least $133 million annually.

Conservationists have long advocated creating a voluntary grazing permit retirement program to compensate ranchers for relinquishing their grazing permits and leases on public lands. The proposed program would be similar to the Peanut Quota Buyout Program and the Tobacco Transition Payment Program.

“Public lands grazing is a dying industry and no amount of special accommodations from Congress can save it from this fate,” said Salvo. “Let’s finally resolve grazing conflicts by offering voluntary grazing permit retirement to any rancher interested in retiring their permits for cash.”