New Public Lands Uses Impacting Grazing Permits

The Public Lands Council recently concluded its 56th annual meeting in Grand Junction, Colorado. Coming out of that meeting, Executive Director Kaitlyn Glover, says they have a very clear vision to address some of the most challenging multiple-use intersections with grazing.

There's no question that we're going to see an explosion of solar development on BLM land, specifically because of new policies that expanded the agency's direction to site utility-scale solar on public lands that has a direct impact on grazing. And so our members are going to be not only working on ways to mitigate that impact to grazing, but also make sure that multiple use can can persist. Because when you see utility scale solar installed, it's a conversion of the landscape to solar only, rather than the expectation that the landscape will continue to be in multiple use”

She says, going into the next several years, there will be an immense amount of regulatory and legal challenges.

“Therev are both on the Forest Service and BLM sides. There are big regulatory initiatives underway that will change not only grazing access but how you know the process to utilize those grazing permits.”

Glover adds that PLC is equipped with professionals that have knowledge and experience in Public Lands Management.