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Help end livestock damage to Wilderness

Cattle grazing in the Mojave Wilderness by George Wuerthner

Most Americans are shocked when they find out that ranchers are allowed to graze their private livestock on our federal public lands—including deep within protected Wilderness areas—for literally pennies a day, and at a great cost to the environment and native wildlife.

Incredibly, private livestock are currently authorized to graze over 25 percent of the 52 million acres of protected Wilderness in the lower 48 states. Livestock grazing in Wilderness damages native vegetation, fouls streams, and can be a death sentence for native wildlife like wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions, coyotes, and bighorn sheep.

Fortunately, the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (H.R.6314) offers a solution toward ending livestock damage in Wilderness. Please urge your representative to co-sponsor and pass this critical piece of legislation to protect Wilderness and its wildlife.

The Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (VGPRA) would provide conservation interests a chance to permanently end livestock grazing in Wilderness and elsewhere on public lands. Under the VGPRA, if a rancher voluntarily waives their grazing permit back to the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management, the permit would be permanently retired and couldn’t be reissued by the agency. Current regulations either prevent such retirement of public lands grazing permits or make the process very difficult. Wilderness Watch has supported similar legislation in previous sessions of Congress, and more details about VGPRA are available here.

The original authors and supporters of the 1964 Wilderness Act wanted to end livestock grazing in Wilderness, but political compromise at the time prevented that. Today, we know how pervasive the negative impacts of livestock grazing are to Wilderness, watersheds, native wildlife, and our other public lands.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. What better way to celebrate this incredible milestone than by finally putting America on the path toward a livestock-free Wilderness system? Please speak up for Wilderness and wildlife today by urging your representative to co-sponsor and pass the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act!

Urge your representative to co-sponsor and pass the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act

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Photo: Cows in the Mojave Wilderness, CA by George Wuerthner.

Help end livestock damage in Wilderness

U.S. House of Representatives

Subject: Please co-sponsor and pass H.R.6314, the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act

Message:

As your constituent, I urge you to co-sponsor and pass the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (VGPRA), H.R.6314. This important legislation would help protect Wilderness, wildlife, and watersheds in potentially hundreds of individual Wilderness areas across the American West. Under the VGPRA, if a rancher voluntarily waives their grazing permit back to the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management, the permit would be permanently retired and couldn’t be reissued by the agency. Current regulations either prevent such retirement of public lands grazing permits, or make the process very difficult. Incredibly, private livestock are currently authorized to graze over 25 percent of the 52 million acres of protected Wilderness in the lower 48 states. Livestock grazing in Wilderness damages native vegetation, fouls streams, and can be a death sentence for native wildlife like wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions, coyotes, and bighorn sheep. Yet at one-tenth of one percent of all forage fed to livestock in the United States, grazing in Wilderness hardly contributes to the U.S. livestock industry. The original authors and supporters of the 1964 Wilderness Act wanted to end livestock grazing in Wilderness, but political compromise at the time prevented that. Today, we know how pervasive the negative impacts of livestock grazing are to Wilderness, watersheds, native wildlife, and our other public lands, and livestock grazing in Wilderness is markedly less important to local communities. The Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (H.R.6314) can go a long way in resolving the inherent conflict between grazing and Wildernesses preservation, and would provide enormous benefits to Wilderness, wildlife, and watersheds—all on a voluntary basis. It deserves your support. Please co-sponsor and pass H.R.6314. Thank you for your consideration.

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Help end livestock damage to Wilderness

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