Consequences of Critical Habitat Designations

Earlier this week Western Colorado rancher and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Federal Lands Committee Chair Robbie LeValley testified before the House Natural Resources Committee to discuss the potential consequences of the Administrations’s critical habitat policy. She believes the newly expanded definition of the critical habitat creates a level of uncertainty.
LeValley: “And that level of uncertainty then certainly limits the ability to expand and the ability to bring in the next generation and make them profitable as well. But at the same time it creates an uneasiness — what additional or how broad will the Fish and Wildlife Service — in working with the Bureau of Land Management — make these areas that they deem to be critical habitat. Even though the bird is not occupying those areas.”
She continues with another frustration she and other ranchers who have with federal grazing permits have
LeValley: “We are often the ones that there is a decrease in the amount of grazing or the time of grazing. Even though our current grazing that we have been doing for the last 15 years actually provides habitat that exceeds the Gunnison Sage Grouse habitat guidelines. So again it is the uncertainty that we believe that the 2015 Critical Habitat Rule provides that creates an uneasiness not only for us in the Gunnison Sage Grouse habitat but the Greater Sage Grouse as well.”