Issues > Public Lands> Printer Version
Cash Cows
Rangeland Reform
$100 million

"Although cattle grazing in the West has polluted more water, eroded more topsoil, killed more fish, displaced more wildlife, and destroyed more vegetation than any other land use, the American public pays ranchers to do it." Ted Williams, "He's Going to Have an Accident," Audubon 1991.

The public land grazing program administered by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is highly subsidized, benefits only a tiny fraction of the nation's livestock operators and in 1998 cost taxpayers roughly $100 million. Below-cost grazing fees encourage overgrazing and, along with other problematic features of the existing federal program, have resulted in extensive and severe environmental damage to public lands.

Green Scissors Proposal
1) Charge a grazing fee on federal lands that covers management costs, and eliminate program expenditures that neither protect nor restore resources; 2) allow holders of grazing permits to "rest" the public's lands by not grazing them; and 3) create a voluntary permit retirement program to terminate grazing on ecologically sensitive and significant allotments.

Current Status
On May 15, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld a BLM regulation that allows non-ranchers to obtain grazing permits. The court also upheld other rules adopted by former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt in 1994 that sought to improve the federal grazing program. However, the rules upheld by the Supreme Court did not include a provision that would have allowed permit holders to voluntarily rest rangelands for up to ten years.

For the third year in a row, Senator Peter Domenici (R-NM) attached a rider to the fiscal year 2001 Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 4578) that allows expired grazing permits to be automatically renewed without an environmental review. An amendment sponsored by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) to strike the rider failed on a 37 to 62 vote.

Program Hurts Taxpayers

The current grazing fee does not cover the cost of the federal range program. The program costs at least $5.76 per animal per month (AUM), but the current fee is only $1.35 per AUM.

In 1998, the grazing fee resulted in a net loss to taxpayers of $94 million. The U.S. grazing program generated only $22 million while $116 million was spent on the program - all so that less than three percent of U.S. beef could be produced by a mere two percent of U.S. ranchers - including giant corporations, millionaires and "Rolex" ranchers.

The current federal fee is far below the rates charged for grazing on private and state-owned lands in most western states. In 1999, private rates averaged $11.10 per AUM while typical state rates ranged from $4.40 to $10.80.

Grazing fee subsidies are not limited to USFS and BLM lands. At many U.S. military installations, grazing is free. At Fort Hood in Texas, free grazing deprives taxpayers of more than $6 million a year.

The fee isn't the only subsidy. Taxpayers also pay for fences, water tanks and other equipment that makes it possible - and cheap - for livestock to graze federal lands. Taxpayers also pay for predator control measures -- $14 million worth in 1998.

Program Hurts the Environment

Below market fees and rancher subsidies encourage overgrazing and are often an incentive to graze environmentally sensitive lands, with resultant damage to riparian areas, soil, plants and other resources.

Contacts

• Johanna Wald, Natural Resources Defense Council, (212) 727-4544.
• Caroline Kennedy, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 789-2844 x 107.
• Mark Salvo, American Lands Alliance, (503) 978-1054.
• Eric Wingerter, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, (202) 265-7337.
• Jill Lancelot, Taxpayers for Common Sense, (202) 546-8500 x105.