- The Department of the Interior proposed new grazing rules for the first time since 1995.
- One proposed change would vastly reduce opportunities for public comment.
- A top Interior official and rancher received an ethics waiver to regulate the cattle industry.
The Department of the Interior published a proposal in May “modernizing grazing regulations” for the first time in 31 years. The new rule would apply to 155 million acres of Bureau of Land Management territory — nearly 7% of the country — spread across the states.
“For too long, ranchers and land managers have been forced to work under outdated rules that do not match today’s challenges,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
“President Trump has made it clear that we must cut red tape, support the people who feed our nation and ensure our public lands remain healthy for future generations. These updates will help us do exactly that.”
In the press release, the Interior called out what it sees as the two biggest changes in the proposed rule: “streamlined grazing administration and expanded rangeland health standards.”
That’s achieved by applying the same land-health standards maintained for grazing to all other uses of BLM’s federal public lands, such as mining, logging, recreation and drilling. Each would have to comply with the agency’s current regulations.
As for streamlining administration, the new rule would eliminate public comment from a variety of grazing-related leasing and allotment updates. While it would reduce bureaucracy, critics say it takes away the voice of stakeholders.
“The most text in this regulatory proposal is devoted to explaining why the public no longer gets to participate in pretty much every step of the process,” Nada Culver, former BLM principal deputy director, said in an interview with ProPublica and High Country News, published this week.
In their review of the new rule, ProPublica and High Country News referred to their earlier investigation showing that the majority of ranching subsidy benefits are reaped by a minority of wealthy landowners and that there are more negative impacts on rangeland ecology than benefit. Those outlets found the new rule to have benefits, but still “heavily favor(s) the livestock industry.”
The investigation found that the BLM had uncovered — just within grazing allotments — "tens of millions of acres of damage due to overgrazing" in those assessments.
What are the proposed updates?
According to the Interior, the new rule “would give ranchers more flexibility, improve the health of rangelands and support rural communities across the West.”
The "Revision of Regulations for Grazing Administration, Exclusive of Alaska" makes a number of changes to a variety of different grazing regulations.
It would expand which uses of public land are studied for ecological impact far beyond grazing, applying the same land-health requirements across all programs the BLM manages. As those uses include mining, logging, recreation and drilling, it represents a large update to the current BLM land-health standards.
The management of water quality standards for federally owned BLM land would revert to individual states’ laws in another rollback of current regulations.
The changes to public input would affect a number of grazing issues. In changing the definition of “interested parties,” the new rule would prevent the general public — anyone it understands not to be directly impacted — from most grazing considerations.
The public’s input on things like combining allotments and offering smaller permits would be eliminated. Regional Advisory Councils’ reach was also reduced.
In another change, the BLM would only allow commercial grazing operations to be eligible for grazing permits. “Conservation use” permits would be eliminated, as would tribal access for grazing either bison or for sustenance.
What do cattlemen think?
According to the Western Ag Network, which went to the Wyoming Stock Growers Association annual convention to speak with ranchers, Tim Canterbury, president of the Public Lands Council and a Colorado rancher, said that “ranchers across the West have made one thing clear during recent listening sessions: More flexibility and better science are needed to manage federal grazing permits.”
For Karen Budd-Falen, one of the top three leaders at the Interior, it represents a chance to return to norms that existed before Bruce Babbitt was secretary of the Interior during the Clinton administration.
“I am so excited about these regulations,” she said, in a December interview with Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., that was first reported by the Washington Post.
Budd-Falen’s a cattle rancher herself and is under some scrutiny for the potential for conflict of interest associated with her rewriting regulations for the industry.
During the first Trump administration, Budd-Falen was not allowed to participate in grazing-related issues because of that conflict. After returning for the second term, however, she was granted another ethics waiver, which allowed her to participate in the current rewriting of grazing regulations.
In that same interview with Lummis, Budd-Falen said that grazing was the issue “closest to my heart.”
“By the first of next year, you will see fully new regulations that don’t just fix a few of the Babbitt things,” she told Lummis. “We went back to the Ronald Reagan years and are putting back in those regs.”
The public comment period for the new regulations is open until midnight July 13. After that, responses will be considered and a final recommendation released at a not-yet-determined date.