FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

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OPPOSE WEAKENING BLM GRAZING REGULATIONS

Grazing interests have long treated public-range lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as if they had paramount rights to their use. They have wanted to treat them as adjuncts to their own nearby, ranch properties.The welfare of wildlife on those lands is given little attention.

They have even incorporated the value of grazing permits into the market value of their ranch properties. They have wanted to turn their permits into vested rights.

Cattlemen objected when, in the mid-1990s, the Clinton administration tried to challenge these traditions with modest revisions in the regulations, which emphasized the public character of these lands.

Now the Bush administration is trying to return to this earlier era. They are proposing to revise the applicable regulations:

--to let ranchers share title to various so-called "improvements" made to BLM lands for grazing purposes, such as fences and wells;

 --to allow ranchers to maintain locked gates which would close off public lands to visitors;

--to open up various areas reserved for wildlife to grazing by cattle and sheep;

--to reduce the amount of monitoring by the BLM of compliance by grazing interests with legal requirements;

--to make it harder for anyone, other than grazing interests, to file appeals of decisions by the BLM and to achieve standing to sue; and

--provide that National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews will focus not only on the environmental impacts but will consider the economic, social, and cultural impacts of the BLM's decisions as well, thus changing the focus of these reviews entirely.

These changes will have the effect of entrenching grazing interests to an even greater extent on public lands and will make it more difficult to terminate permits.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs objects to these proposed changes in the regulations. It urges that they be withdrawn and that there be no change in the regulations.


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