As a founding member of the National
Public Lands Grazing Campaign and a member of its steering board, Western
Watersheds Project welcomes this positive news from Washington. Our thanks go
to Representative Shays and Grijalva and to Andy Kerr, the executive director
of the NPLGC.
National Public Lands Grazing Campaign
NEWS RELEASE
Oct.
20, 2003
Contact:
Andy Kerr, NPLGC director (503-701-6298 or
andykerr@andykerr.net)
Rep. Christopher Shays (202-225-5541)
Rep.
Raúl Grijalva (202-225-2435 or 520-622-6788)
Keith Raether, NPLGC
Public Information Coordinator (406-239-2287)
Shays, Grijalva
Introduce Voluntary Grazing Buyout Bills in Congress
Reps.
Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) have introduced
legislation to enact a voluntary federal grazing permit buyout program that
would compensate public lands ranchers and could eventually protect 257 million
acres of federal public lands in the United States.
The Voluntary
Grazing Permit Buyout Act (H.R. 3324, "Shays-Grijalva") would allow federal
public lands ranchers to waive their interest in grazing permits in exchange
for compensation in the amount of $175/animal unit month (or AUM, the amount of
forage to sustain one cow and calf for one month). The bill authorizes $100
million for the program, enough money to retire an estimated 7.8 million acres
of federal lands grazed by domestic livestock.
The Arizona Voluntary
Grazing Permit Buyout Act is a similar bill that applies specifically to
Arizona.
"Buying out federal grazing permits is good for western states
and the entire nation," said Shays. "It benefits our nation's environment and
budget, while providing a lucrative offer to ranchers who want to sell their
permits."
"This legislation will go a long way toward resolving the
ongoing and contentious debate on public lands grazing in the West," said
Grijalva. "Congressman Shays and I have introduced a bill that will give
much-needed relief to ranching families suffering the results of drought and
other economic factors. At the same time, the bill will allow for the
restoration of public lands that are no longer suitable for grazing. It
is a win-win solution to what for many years was viewed as
unsolvable."
Under both bills, the public lands allotment associated
with a grazing permit would be permanently retired from commercial livestock
grazing and the forage re-allocated to wildlife and watersheds. The bills are
designed as pilot programs to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the
approach.
"It's a relief that Congress is finally seeing past all the
theories and paying attention to the reality on the ground," said John Whitney
III, a fourth-generation rancher who holds the largest U.S. Forest Service
grazing permit in Arizona. Whitney's 158,000-acre Sunflower allotment in Tonto
National Forest northeast of Phoenix has been closed for three years because of
drought.
The buyout program was conceived by the National Public Lands
Grazing Campaign, which seeks to end abusive livestock grazing on America's
public lands. The goal of the NPLGC is to provide a solution to the largest
conservation issue in the West - livestock grazing - and a financial
alternative for cash-strapped public lands ranchers with investments stranded
in grazing permits.
The buyout proposal was introduced to nearly 26,000
public lands ranchers in April 2002. It is endorsed by nearly 200 conservation
groups, including the Sierra Club.
In a recent poll conducted by the
Arizona Grazing Permit Buyout Campaign, 154 permittees (68 percent of all
respondents) of the state's 870 federal public lands ranchers supported the
bill. Eleven others have since added their support.
"We know this is
just the tip of the iceberg," said John Whitney IV, steering committee chairman
of the Arizona buyout campaign. "A lot of permittees have told us they support
a buyout, but they just couldn't believe it would ever happen. Well, now it is
happening."
If all federal grazing permittees availed themselves of the
buyout offer, the plan would effectively retire a federal welfare program that
costs American taxpayers more than $500 million annually in subsidies for
public lands ranching operations. A complete buyout of all federal public lands
grazed by livestock would cost taxpayers $3.1 billion but provide a net savings
of $12.6 billion.
Federal public lands produce only 2 percent of the nation's
total livestock feed and beef. Contributions from public lands grazing to state
and local economies are miniscule. As the cost of ranching continues to
increase, the capital value of federal grazing permits continues to
decline.
The Shays-Grijalva bills would pay federal permittees well
above market value to relinquish their grazing permits. Under the plan, a
permittee with 300 cow/calf pairs that graze public lands for five months of
the year would receive $262,000.
The buyout program would also diminish
decades of environmental destruction caused by livestock grazing. In its Global
2000 report, the Council on Environmental Quality noted that "improvident
grazing . . . has been the most potent desertification force, in terms of total
acreage, within the United States."
"To protect endangered species and
ensure water quality on public lands, the federal government encourages
citizens to sue violators, even the government itself," said Andy Kerr,
director of the NPLGC. "The 'stick' approach is important, but
environmentalists also want the government to implement the 'carrot'
approach."
Time magazine estimates that 328,000 ranchers and farmers
will lose their jobs in this decade alone.
"A federal grazing permit buyout is ecologically imperative,
economically rational, fiscally prudent, socially just and politically
pragmatic," said Kerr. "It's a win-win-win for permittees, taxpayers and the
environment."