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NEPA comes into play whenever a federal land management agency, including the BLM or US Forest Service, considers making a decision or carrying out a project that could potentially impact natural resources on public lands. Included in this is issuance of 10-year grazing permits and any projects that are not specifically included as improvements in current grazing permits. This includes new fencing, establishing access to or maintaining waters, and other range improvements. The NEPA process can take a long time, often years. Because of this it is essential that ranchers engage at the outset to ensure their opinions are considered throughout the process.

How can ranchers engage in NEPA? What does it mean to “do NEPA” on a grazing allotment? This topic section steps through the NEPA process, highlights key points where and how ranchers should engage in the process. The information on these NEPA pages is also available from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension as a book, NEPA for Ranchers. No matter if you use this webpage or the NEPA for Ranchers  guidebook, the most important thing is to be involved in the process so the agency understands your perspective, needs for range improvements, and the effect of decisions on your operation.

Since the turn of the last century the federal government has regulated domestic livestock use on its lands through grazing permits. Such practices began on the National Forests in the early 1900s and expanded to other public lands with the passage of the Taylor Grazing Act in 1934. These new policies and laws sought to protect public lands from the widespread overgrazing that occurred during early settlement, when range and forest lands were over-exploited in the absence of rules restricting their use.

Under the Taylor Grazing Act and subsequent laws regulating grazing, livestock operators can apply for a permit from the U.S. Forest Service or the BLM. These permits provide ranchers with exclusive access to specific areas of public lands in return for a fee, agreement to establish and maintain certain infrastructure, and conditional on following management requirements established by federal agencies. Eligibility for a grazing permit is established in part by ownership of adjacent private land. These private lands are generally the original homesteads of ranchers and the establishment of the grazing permit system was supported by ranchers as a way to end overgrazing and provide greater certainty about how public lands would be managed.

Livestock grazing on public lands generally declined after the Taylor Grazing Act as government agencies worked to regulate grazing, reduce overgrazing, and recover degraded rangelands. Livestock numbers have stabilized over the past 15 years. In 2016 The Forest Service allowed livestock grazing by 5,863 permittees on 102 million of 193 million acres it manages (53%). The BLM allowed grazing on 155 million of 245 million acres managed (63%) through 18,000 permits. 

Overview

As the population of major western U.S. cities has grown and surrounding rural areas have become more suburban, the users of public lands have changed. Ranchers are still important, but more than ever urban residents look to public lands for recreation, retreat, and solitude. Sometimes, these users see livestock production as harmful or incompatible with their enjoyment of public lands. In the 1980s, these changes resulted in increasing conflicts between ranchers, environmentalists, and the agencies responsible for the management of public lands. By the 1990s, some people, tired of unproductive conflict, began looking for other ways to improve conservation outcomes on public lands. As a result of this change, three major trends emerged in management of public lands in the West: adaptive management, collaborative conservation, and co-production of management science. The links below provide more information on the importance of each of these trends and how they influence public lands management today.

The scientific exploration of the use and management of rangelands began in the early 1900s. Rangeland ecology and management is an applied science that was developed in direct response to the negative impacts of overgrazing on natural ecosystems and to enhance the economic viability of ranching as a livelihood. Ranching has unavoidable impacts that must be managed to prevent impacts that exceed the capacity of natural systems to recover and society’s tolerance for use and alteration of public lands. One hundred years of rangeland science has provided many of the tools needed to manage undesirable impacts while maintaining production. At the same time, we still have much to learn. Today three approaches are commonly used for the management of public lands to limit the negative impacts, expand our knowledge of how these systems function, and balance different uses and management goals: adaptive management, co-production of science, and collaborative conservation.

Overview

Beyond economic goals, many ranchers also value the culture of ranching and work to manage in a way that balances conservation of natural resources and livestock production.  How do ranchers balance economics with conservation values? What is meant by cultural values and why are they important?  Economic, conservation, and cultural issues are linked. Many studies have been conducted to understand what drives ranchers to continue ranching. The economics of ranching are difficult: ranchers are dependent on many outside forces for their income, from livestock markets over which they have no control, to year-to-year variations in weather that can affect both the long-term and short-term productivity of a ranch. At the same time, land in many rural areas continues to increase in value and is ripe for development. Given these challenges and opportunities, why do ranchers continue ranching? For many ranchers it is a combination of culture and conservation. Surveys of ranchers show that those that continue working in ranching do it because they like the lifestyle, tradition, and community around ranching. Other research shows that ranchers who use public lands also tend to have strong conservation motivations. The resources included below provide more information about what motivates public lands ranchers and why they continue to ranch.

Overview 

National forests, parks, wildlife refuges, national monuments, and state trust lands. Each of these land designations come with different rules and regulations that effect the goals, management, and outcomes on these public-owned lands. The links below provide an introduction to the goals of the different federal and state agencies involved in the management and regulation of grazing on public lands in the U.S. There are also links to additional resources to learn more about how public lands are managed, the goals of different agencies, and how and why decisions about land management are made.  

Overview

At its height in 1867, the public domain of the U.S. comprised 1.8 billion acres of land. Between 1781 and 1802, seven of the original 13 colonies relinquished claim to 236 million acres as conditions of statehood. Purchases from France, Spain, Mexico, and Russia between 1781 and 1867 added an additional nearly 1.6 billion acres. Two thirds of the public domain were eventually transferred to states, corporations and individuals in the form of land grants, military bounties, sales, or various homestead laws.

At first, the federal government was primarily concerned with generating revenue from public lands and encouraging their settlement and privatization. As more and more of the public domain was developed and privatized, however, interest in conserving natural resources also increased. Between 1890 and 1945, approximately 200 million acres were reserved in the form of National Forests, Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and Department of Defense lands. By 1930 what remained of the public domain was mostly used for livestock grazing. In 1934, Congress passed the Taylor Grazing Act and formed grazing districts to prevent damage to these lands. It was not until the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 1976, however, that Congress declared its intention to retain the remaining public lands unless their disposal was deemed to be in the national interest. Today the federal government manages approximately 640 million acres on behalf of the American people –the public lands. By the year 2018, of this total, 606.5 million acres are managed by four agencies: Bureau of Land Management (244.4), Forest Service (192.9), Fish and Wildlife Service (89.2) and National Park Service (79.9). A fifth agency, the Department of Defense, manages 8.8 million acres.

Public land management is highly complex. The USFS and BLM have legal mandates to serve as many users as possible while maintaining the long-term sustainability of public land natural resources. However, in reality these agencies do not have the resources required to adequately manage the millions of acres under their stewardship on their own. On rangelands, ranchers are involved in the day-to-day management of public lands. They maintain fences, water resources, and other infrastructure, implement management plans, and conduct resource monitoring. Conservation organizations carry out restoration projects, wildlife management, and work with agencies and other users to carry out management plans.

Pages on this site provide more information on how public lands management takes place, how ranchers and other groups collaborate with federal agencies on land management, and the important laws and regulations that influence rangeland management on public lands, especially the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).