Aggies Target BLM Public Lands Rule

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Agriculture interests sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on July 12, challenging a final rule that they say threatens the future of ranching on public lands.

The BLM issued the final Conservation and Landscape Health rule in May that reportedly was designed to increase the health and resilience of public lands.

The new rule, ag groups said in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, will make it more difficult for ranchers to play a role in preserving public lands.

The rule establishes two new categories of land use leases: mitigation leases and restoration leases.

"These are leases for conservation and no more, and they are flatly inconsistent with the statutory scheme that BLM is tasked with implementing," the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation, Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Natrona County Farm and Ranch Bureau, American Exploration and Mining Association, American Forest Resource Council, American Petroleum Institute, American Sheep Industry Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Mining Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Public Lands Council, and Western Energy Alliance.

CONCERNS ABOUT THE RULE

"With the rule, BLM has converted a statute for managing the productive use of lands into one of non-use, prioritizing conservation values above, and to the exclusion of, the exclusively productive activities that FLPMA (Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976) has governed for nearly half a century," the lawsuit said.

The groups asked the federal court to declare the rule unlawful and to prevent its enforcement.

During a public comment period, more than 60 state and national agricultural groups submitted comments on the rule. Generally speaking, ag groups were concerned that the rule would eventually lead to removing grazing on public lands.

Federal rangelands generate more than $3 billion annually in ecosystem services, which amounts to more than $20 per public acre of land grazed by cattle or sheep, according to information from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Accounting for tax dollars and grazing fees paid by ranchers, that's a net return of more than $19 on each grazed acre.

Ecosystem services include wildfire mitigation, cutting down on invasive species, sequestering carbon, improving wildlife habitat and preserving open green space for recreation.

The new rule "arrogates to BLM power to set aside land for conservation, which Congress has reserved to itself or elsewhere has granted in tightly limited circumstances," the lawsuit argued.

"The rule is also arbitrary and capricious in part because it offers virtually no guidance as to when land can or will be set aside for mitigation or restoration and ACECs (areas of critical environmental concern). To top it off, the rule is barred by the Congressional Review Act and was promulgated without complying with the National Environmental Policy Act."

The BLM oversees about 245 million acres in the West, or about 10% of all land in the U.S.

BROAD IMPLICATIONS FOR AG

In a news release from the American Farm Bureau Federation, the group said changes to the rule have "broad implications" for agriculture in general and ranchers in particular.

Gary Heibertshausen, a Montana sheep rancher and vice president of the state's farm bureau chapter, said in an AFBF news release that livestock access to public lands was crucial to his operation.

"If Willow Creek Partners could not graze its livestock on federal land, we would be forced to sell our sheep and cease operating as a ranch," he said.

Heibertshausen and his business partners have six grazing permits covering several thousand acres of federal lands.

"Under the rule, we can no longer be certain that the public lands on which we currently rely for grazing will remain available for grazing over the coming years," he said.

AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a statement that further restricting grazing on public lands "takes us backward not forward" because ranchers are "delivering a return on the trust placed in them" to care for public lands.

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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