Victory for Public Land Ranchers

Victory for Public Land Ranchers

I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Open Range.
In December the Public Lands Council, Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association and several individual Arizona ranchers announced victory in a court case where a radical anti-grazing environmental group challenged the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to continue livestock grazing on eight Arizona grazing allotments.

Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association Executive Vice President Patrick Bray says the decision will benefit not just the ranchers in his state, but will potentially have positive west-wide implications.

Bray: “At the end of the day, the judge decided that what the Forest Service had done using categorical exclusion they were able to continue grazing as they had been on seven of the eight allotments. But overall it was a huge victory for ranchers here in Arizona, but more importantly for ranchers across the West.”

Under ‘categorical exclusion’ provisions and the protections offered through appropriations language, land management agencies are able to reauthorize grazing that is simply continuing under existing conditions.

Bray: “Because the NEPA process and going through an environmental assessment is so cumbersome both on the permittee rancher and the actual agency itself, when you can have access to tools such as categorical exclusion where you are able to streamline the process, agency personnel do a review of what you are doing, they know what you are doing going forward there should be no problem with an agency renewing that permit for the next 10 years.”