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Proposed changes to livestock grazing regulations could affect nearly 5 million acres of Wilderness across the West: Comment by March 6^th!

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages livestock grazing on 155 million acres of federal public lands in 11 western states, has proposed grazing regulation revisions that will have significant environmental impacts across the west

The BLM’s proposed changes to grazing regulations could affect nearly 5 million acres of Wilderness across the West, including the habitat for numerous imperiled species such as grizzly bear, Mexican gray wolves, desert tortoise, sage grouse and black-footed ferret.

We need you to submit comments to the BLM before their March 6th comment deadline.

Among the most concerning proposals:

• BLM could adopt new regulations for informally addressing unauthorized grazing, meaning that instead of complying with existing regulations to document violations and assess penalties, the agency will likely come up with a way of hiding what it knows about grazing trespass or overuse, including within designated Wilderness.

• The agency wants to expand the use of categorical exclusions, rather than complete full and fair environmental analyses for grazing permits within Wilderness and public lands.

• A streamlined protests and appeal process by the agency to reduce timelines for public involvement, increase or codify exhaustion requirements, and to further limit public involvement in decisions regarding livestock grazing on public lands and within Wilderness.

• Removal of the current requirement to assess Land Health Standards on every grazing allotment as part of the permit renewal process. Already, the BLM has been failing to meet Land Health Standards on many, many public lands and Wilderness grazing allotments throughout the west, so instead of meeting the standards, the BLM plans to do away with the requirement.

• Expedited livestock grazing authorizations under the false narrative of grazing as "a tool to reduce wildfire" or to "improve rangeland conditions" when the science shows the opposite is true in almost all cases.

Please submit your comments to the BLM today!

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Please submit your comments to the BLM today!

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

Subject: Proposed Grazing Regulation Revision (DOI-BLM-WO-WO2000-2019-0001-EIS)

Message:

I’m very worried that the BLM could adopt new regulations for informally addressing unauthorized grazing, meaning that instead of complying with existing regulations to document violations and assess penalties, the BLM will come up with a way of hiding what it knows about grazing trespass or overuse, including within designated Wilderness. I totally oppose the BLM’s expanded use of categorical exclusions, rather than completing full and fair environmental analyses, for grazing permits within Wilderness and our public lands. The BLM’s streamlined protests and appeal process will reduce timelines for public involvement, increase or codify exhaustion requirements, and further limit public involvement in decisions regarding livestock grazing on public lands and within Wilderness, so I’m opposed to this revision. I also oppose the BLM’s plan to remove the current requirement to assess Land Health Standards on every grazing allotment as part of the permit renewal process. Already, the BLM has been failing to meet Land Health Standards on many, many public lands and Wilderness grazing allotments throughout the west. Incredibly, instead of meeting the standards, the BLM plans to do away with the requirement altogether. BLM’s attempt to expedite livestock grazing authorizations under the false narrative of grazing as “a tool to reduce wildfire” or to “improve rangeland conditions” is entirely misguided, especially since the science shows the opposite is true in almost all cases. Therefore, I oppose this revision. If BLM is going to change the grazing regulations, I suggest that you improve them for the benefit of the myriad plants and animals that depend on these public lands and Wilderness areas. Any new regulations should: • Allow for grazing permit retirement and long-term non-use for conservation purposes. This is especially important in the nearly 5 million acres of designated Wilderness on BLM administered lands that are currently open to livestock grazing. • Create no new categorical exclusions and expand use of EAs and EISs to facilitate greater levels of public engagement, including through posting monitoring reports online for public review, inviting the interested public to attend field visits, and notifying the public of all grazing permit decisions. • Require grazing management to improve carbon sequestration in soils and analyze grazing in context of the climate crisis, while ensuring grazing management preserves the habitat value of grazed lands for native plant and wildlife species and does not impede grazed lands from serving as habitat for native predators. • Honestly evaluate the contribution of livestock grazing to cheatgrass and accelerated fire cycles and provide more opportunity for the public to evaluate site-specific proposals for fire-related livestock actions and forbid destruction of native vegetation to increase forage for livestock. Thank you.

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Proposed changes to livestock grazing regulations could affect nearly 5 million acres of Wilderness across the West: Comment by March 6th!

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Proposed changes to livestock grazing regulations could affect nearly 5 million acres of Wilderness across the West: Comment by March 6^th!