Suchergebnisse

The use of rangelands administered by agencies of the federal government by domestic livestock has been an issue associated with controversy for many years. One of these issues that has surfaced periodically has been the fees charged livestockmen who use lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (FS). This issue became politically "hot" in 1977 and 1978. This controversy became intense enough that Congress established a fee formula as part of the Public Rangelands Improvement Act (PRIA) of 1978. Congress directed that this formula be used during a seven-year trial period. It was further stipulated that this time would allow the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to refine data needed to determine the value of forage taken from federal lands by domestic livestock and to compare this to the value of forage available from pri vate lands. A final report was to be submitted to Congress by March of 1985 that outlined the values that were to be estimated. Several study reports have been prepared as part of this evaluation (see the bibliography of this report).

Grazing permits are the authorization to graze livestock on federally administered 1 and. In the early 1900s, grazing permits were first observed to have value to the rancher over and above the grazing fee charges by the government. Ranchers were willing to pay the fee plus an additional amount to gain access to the permit. It was reported that during this period the privilege to graze federal land became so valuable that it figured in sales contracts for lands adjacent to the forest whose owners held grazing permits. The control of grazing privileges on federal land has been valued by ranchers as a capital asset for over seventy years.