JACKSON, Wyo. — A July 5 letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director from a number of conservation groups raises concerns around the BLM’s implementation of policies and regulations around livestock grazing in light of a new proposed rule to address climate impacts on the landscape.
The conservation groups who provided comments in the 50 page letter include the Western Watersheds Project, Wilderness Watch, WildEarth Guardians, Prairie Hill Audubon Society and Center For Biological Diversity, among others.
In April the BLM proposed the Conservation and Landscape Health draft rule, aiming to address the pressures of climate change on the landscape by providing an overarching framework of land health standards to all BLM-managed public lands and uses. The rule prioritizes protecting intact landscapes, restoring degraded habitat and making management decisions based on science and data. It also supports conservation as a use of public lands.
While the conservation groups support the objective of the proposed rule to raise the status of conservation through regulation, there is concern over the BLM’s continued absence of management of livestock grazing.
“Grazing on public lands is not restoration, nor is it complementary or compatible with conservation at anywhere near the present livestock densities,” Josh Osher, Public Policy Director for Western Watersheds Project, said in a press release.
The press release notes a recent study that confirms livestock grazing on public lands results in major climate impacts, including high emissions of methane.
However, a letter sent in May to the BLM Director from Wyoming’s elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction claims that favoring conservation over grazing leasing of public lands will reduce monetary support to public school students. The letter confirms that in 2021 the roughly 3.5 million acres of Wyoming land leased for grazing, mineral development, timber harvest and recreation provided over $100 million to fund state education.
Additionally, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) released a statement in May saying that Wyoming families depend on livestock grazing on public lands. According to Barrasso, the BLM rule “undermines the law’s multiple-use requirement for Bureau of Land Management lands…I will do everything in my power to stop this proposal.”
