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Domestic livestock graze almost 270 million acres of federal land in the
western United States. Although this grazing has constituted an integral
part of western lifestyle and culture since before the turn of the century, its
impact on public rangeland conditions has increasingly concerned the Congress.
In recent years GAO has issued a number of reports pointing out
weaknesses in federal rangeland management and the potential consequences
of these weaknesses on range conditions. In particular, GAO
reported in June 1988 that conditions were unsatisfactory on more than
half of the rangeland for which managers had the information to assess the
land’s condition. The report recommended that federal range managers
identify the land that managers believed was deteriorating or being overgrazed
and focus management attention accordingly.
Subsequently, the Chairman, Subcommittee on National Parks and Public
Lands, House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, asked GAO to
follow up on this previous report. As part of this request, the Chairman
asked GAO to review the land management agencies’ performance in
monitoring range conditions and in taking action to change grazing
practices when the monitoring data indicated that changes were needed.
This report, the last in the series requested by the Chairman, addresses the
performance of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) in these two areas. The report is based largely on
information obtained from questionnaires sent to nearly 100 BLM field
offices responsible for managing public rangelands.