WYOMING – The Trump administration recently reduced grazing fees on public lands to the lowest the federal law allows.
The US Interior Department reduced fees for grazing cattle and sheep on federal public lands to $1.35 an animal-month. Last week’s announcement applies to grazing in national forests and on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
The new monthly fee, down from $1.41 a month in 2018 and $1.87 in 2017, is for each cow with a calf, or five sheep or goats. The 41-year-old formula has benefitted livestock operators whose animals graze on federal public lands, but critics—including Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, and WildEarth Guardians—say a large proportion of BLM grazing land fails to meet the BLM’s own rangeland health standards.
“These rock-bottom prices don’t even cover the cost of administering the permits, so the American taxpayers are footing the bill for a massive welfare program that degrades our public lands,” said Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project. “Even with the low fees, our western mountains and basins are typically so arid or fragile that federal land managers have to sacrifice the health of the land to authorize grazing levels that are profitable for commercial livestock operations.”
Costs to administer the grazing fee program exceed the money collected, resulting in taxpayer subsidies of about $100 million per year, according to Molvar. The formula used for calculating the grazing fee was established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act and has remained in use under a 1986 presidential Executive Order.
Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the low grazing fees are a bad deal for wildlife and the American public.
“Indirect costs include the killing of important native predators, such as wolves and bears, and trampled landscapes and rivers. It’s a bad deal for wildlife, public lands and American taxpayers. The federal grazing program is long overdue for an overhaul,” he said.
BLM stated three factors go into determining the grazing fee rate: current private grazing land lease rates, beef cattle prices, and the cost of livestock production. “In effect, the fee rises, falls, or stays the same based on market conditions,” the agency stated.
The grazing fee applies in 16 Western states on public lands administered by the BLM and the Forest Service. The states are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
The new fee takes effect on March 1, 2019.
