Last spring, the bureau hired Errol Rice, a Montana native who has previously worked for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Montana Stockgrowers Association, to serve as a senior adviser to BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning and act as a liaison between the bureau and the ranching community ( Greenwire, May 17).
“What they will probably do is maintain policies that allow almost complete control by state offices and local managers, which means that any changes will be scattershot, inconsistent and not durable,” he said.īLM has not said much publicly about the rule or the process to develop a draft proposal, which was put on the White House’s list of 2022 regulatory priorities in June ( Greenwire, June 22). “My expectation is that the BLM will not address the primary problems with the grazing program in a way that will be meaningful or actually require any action to make changes,” said Josh Osher, public policy director for the Western Watersheds Project, which opposes large-scale grazing on federal lands. While they remain hopeful, several people active on the issue said they’re not expecting BLM to change much in how it regulates grazing activity. That’s been particularly true since the 2014 armed standoff between law enforcement and ranchers and militia groups in Nevada when the bureau unsuccessfully attempted to remove hundreds of cattle owned by rancher Cliven Bundy that were illegally grazing on federal lands.Įnvironmental groups have proposed what they say would be significant improvements to how BLM manages federal rangelands. Not only is the issue complicated, it’s also fraught with political peril, and BLM over the years has sought to strike a careful balance with the ranching community. The stakes are high as a changing climate, drought and a near year-round wildfire season are making it increasingly difficult for federal rangelands to support a multiple range of uses, much less support wildlife. “Livestock grazing rules on public lands need a fundamental overhaul,” said Randi Spivak, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands program. These groups have long argued cattle and sheep grazing plays an outsize role in rangeland degradation that must be addressed as the climate warms and drought conditions persist. In contrast, leaders with several conservation groups active on the grazing issue report BLM has not contacted them about their proposal. “For generations, grazing permittees have guarded vast Western landscapes against development, encroachment, and destruction,” said Kaitlynn Glover, executive director of the Public Lands Council, a ranching industry trade group.
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