Washington – Ranchers will soon get more use of the 160 million acres of government land considered appropriate for livestock grazing.
New regulations issued Thursday by the Interior Department will require ranchers to either use the grazing lands they lease from the government or give up their permits so others can use them.
Any ranchers who leave acreage idle for more than a year could lose their grazing permits, which are generally issued for 10 years.
The department’s Bureau of Land Management had been letting ranchers keep the permits as long as they didn’t go more than three years without using the acreage for grazing.
“Conservation use” permits that let ranchers keep the land idle and ungrazed for up to 10 years will no longer be issued.
“What in the past may have been an acceptable rest rotation for two or three years – I think we’ve learned it may not be important to rest it for that time,” said Steve Pilcher, executive vice president for the Montana Stockgrowers Association.
Pilcher said managed grazing keeps grasslands healthier than leaving them idle because it stimulates plant growth. Plants deteriorate if they’re not grazed, he said.
The BLM also will have to conduct additional studies and monitor any environmental degradation on acreage leased to ranchers before it halts grazing on it.
Environmentalists said the Bush administration is trying to eliminate protections for public lands by allowing more time before harmful grazing can be stopped and reducing the amount of public input on grazing decisions.
“It’s bad news,” said John Horning, executive director of Forest Guardians, a Santa Fe conservation group. “It reinstates a 19th-century mind-set. It creates a special class where cowboys and ranchers are the dominant users of our public lands.”
