The Department of Interior’s revised grazing reform
regulations are not due out until the end of March, but leaked
copies are already making headlines. According to the Washington
Post, the big changes from last year’s reform proposal will be a
grazing fee increase scaled back from $4.28 per animal unit month
to $3.96; new incentives and fee reductions for good stewardship;
local resource advisory boards following the Colorado model; and
elimination of national standards and guidelines in favor of
regional requirements yet to be developed. The plan has drawn
cautious support from Western hard-liners, such as Sen. Alan
Simpson, R-Wyo., but four of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s key
allies on Capitol Hill say it leaves them “deeply troubled.” In a
scathing six-page letter, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Reps. George
Miller, D-Calif., Mike Synar, D-Okla., and Bruce Vento, D-Minn.,
warned that the new system of local advisory boards and relaxed
standards and guidelines “threatens to cripple professional land
management” of Western grazing lands. The group told Babbitt they
could not support the revisions in Congress. In addition, Miller,
who is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, says
the administration’s concessions on grazing make him reluctant to
take a tough stand on mining law reform.
cow
drawing
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Grazing plan springs a leak.
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