Two things happened recently that should get everyone’s ears up. Yes, cattle markets are good. However, Congress passed a resolution to put the brakes on Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS), and the Interior Department is proposing new rules for managing Bureau of Land Management lands. You guessed it—it’s about climate change and conservation leases. Even though they follow the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), which guides their current management philosophies, it appears that graziers could be in for problems.
You can tell in the rule that the environmental groups have a handle on the current Department of the Interior, which is run by Deb Haaland, who is more of an Indian, climate, social justice activist than an agency administrator. Most of the Biden administration’s cabinet members are indeed ideological activists. You have until June 20 to comment on the proposal.
NCBA responded to the WOTUS rule in a press release, “The bipartisan passage of this resolution sends a clear message to the Biden administration that this is not how Congress intended to implement the Clean Water Act,” said Todd Wilkinson, NCBA president. “Now, President Biden has a choice: he can sign the resolution and pull back the unlawfully vague WOTUS rule, or he can veto it and turn his back on rural America. I am especially proud of my fellow cattle producers from across the country speaking up to make our voices heard. Together, we wrote more than 1,900 letters to senators calling for a vote on this resolution. Our advocacy made a crucial impact,” he said. So, it looks like WOTUS is closer to being under control.
This Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule has me concerned; it appears that they want to add conservation to the list of multiple uses under FLPMA. This is where the environmental groups have come into play. The enviros have been wanting to consume grazing allotments for years. It seems like it flies in the face of the Taylor Grazing Act, which says that these grazing allotments must be for grazing.
Over the years the environmental community has hamstrung development in this country since the 1970s when Congress passed the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and a host of other environmental laws. Don’t get me wrong, I remember how polluted most metropolitan areas were—it had to be done. But the environmental community has warped and twisted these laws beyond their intended purpose by Congress. Remember, Congress can change these laws.
Why the Interior is doing this has everything to do with the Biden administration’s policies on climate change. Just because BLM attempts to manage 245 million acres it gives the administration the opportunity to cater to green groups and mess with renewable resource users. And then what to do about the horses?
BLM is required to manage for multiple use. They want to put conservation leases on equal footing with grazing, logging, mining and energy production. Conservation leases will be open for all to purchase, which well-moneyed environmental groups will snap up, like the American Prairie project in Montana, where BLM approved bison grazing next to bovine grazing.
One paragraph that bothered me in the proposed rule was that the BLM must charge a rent of at least fair market value. The BLM seeks comment on how fair market value would be determined in the context of restoration or preservation. “Would existing methods for land valuation provide valid results? Would lands with valuable alternative land uses be prohibitively expensive for conservation use? Should the BLM incorporate a public benefit component into the rent calculation to account for the benefits of ecosystem management?” Sounds like grazing fees to me.
Remember the battle cry on federal lands, “Cattle Free by ’93”? That effort has never stopped. And now the Biden administration has the opportunity to use climate change to perhaps amend the FLPMA and change or make it more difficult to run cattle on federal lands.
Cattlemen in the West know that rain is the exception; it’s a dry landscape, it’s high desert and that’s why the government owns it—nobody wanted it in the 1860s; this spring should be an exception. It seems like El Niño and La Niña have a big influence on western moisture. When it’s in the Eastern Pacific, we’re dry. Now that it has moved to the Central Pacific, we get moisture.
Most folks know that cattle are the best way to manage large landscapes. Ranchers have a right to know what to expect from their government. This BLM proposal opens the door for some creative thinking and is wide open for interpretation. Cattle are a conservation tool. — PETE CROW
