Court ruling in BLM grazing case sets back real stewardship

By David Nelson
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 5:37 PM CDT

photo of Dave Nelson.

The Public Lands Council is disappointed with the district court ruling issued Friday, June 8, on the legality of Bureau of Land Management revisions to nationwide grazing regulations. Judge B. Lynn Winmill banned implementation of the grazing regulations. This is a backwards step for the administration of grazing on public lands. The grazing regulations represent an effort by the BLM and Bush administration to balance the interests of resource protection and the people who make a living on the land.

My family and our neighbors manage the rangelands of Idaho with the utmost care. Ranchers have made our living on these lands for generations and cannot afford to see them go to waste. With BLM managers as our partners, we develop grazing plans and manage forage and water resources on public lands. Often, ranchers are the only human presence on the vast rangelands of this state and others across the West. It is up to us to steward America’s public lands. Yet, environmental groups, such as those party to this lawsuit, aim to attack our industry and our way of life. These efforts most often result only in minimized management capacity of federal agencies to the detriment of our public lands.

In his opinion issued Friday, Judge Winmill wrote that the regulations make “no improvement” to previous policy and serve to weaken restrictions on grazing. However, public-lands ranchers support the improvements made by the regulations to more carefully define who is considered an “interested public” and what a person must do to participate in the regulatory process; restore the concept of "preference" to describe the potential capacity of an allotment for stocking livestock; phase-in significant changes to the numbers of livestock permitted to graze; require monitoring data to support significant changes in livestock grazing patterns; and provide for partial ownership range improvement investments.

Friday’s ruling rolls back the practical improvements made by the BLM to manage the nation’s public lands under the agency’s multiple-use sustained yield mandate. PLC will be reviewing the judge’s ruling and considering future action to promote and maintain a stable regulatory regime in which our members can operate economically profitable ranches on public lands.

David Nelson, is a Mackay, Idaho, rancher and president of the Public Lands Council

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