Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, heading west Thursday for meetings on rangeland reform, says he envisions "substantial changes" in his original proposal for tighter federal controls.
In an interview Wednesday, Babbitt said he intends to modify his plan to provide more local flexibility in meeting national goals on environmental protection.He said he wants to encourage ranchers, environmentalists and public officials to get together locally to determine how to spend federal money to improve the condition of the range and decide range management plans.
"We are searching to see if we can find some way of encouraging and empowering consensus decision-making involving all of the stakeholders and give them more weight in the allocation of range improvement funds and the formulation of management plans," he said.
The secretary is traveling to Denver, Salt Lake City, Baker City, Ore., and Boise, Idaho, in the next few days to visit with governors and hold meetings on his upcoming rangeland package.
After failing to break a Western-led Senate filibuster that blocked congressional passage of a less stringent reform package, the Clinton administration is proceeding with its own plan on its executive authority. The proposal is to be unveiled in January after which there will be a period for public comment.
During the Senate filibuster, Babbitt threatened to push ahead immediately with his own plan if the Senate did not act, but since that tactic failed to break the logjam, he has stepped back to reconsider the plan he disclosed in August.
"There are going to be some substantial changes," he said.
He would not give specifics but said his main thrust will be to incorporate more local consensus-building that could mean varying rangeland management in different parts of the country.
The federal government will still order overall environmental standards, such as requirements that grazing not interfere with critical plant growth and not destroy streamside wildlife habitat or wetlands.
Babbitt expressed interest in expanding the kind of group that Gov. Roy Romer has set up in Colorado to work out compromises. Babbitt was to meet with the group of ranchers, environmentalists and academics today.
He reiterated his interest in possibly modifying his plan to include a two-tier system of grazing fees, in which large ranchers might be charged more than small farmers to graze cattle on federal land.