BLM overhauls grazing rules to expand livestock on 155 million acres, curtail public input

The Bureau of Land Management is rewriting its grazing regulations for the first time since 1995, proposing rules that would expand livestock grazing across 155 million acres of western public lands, an area twice the size of New Mexico, while sharply reducing opportunities for public participation in permitting decisions. The proposed regulations, released publicly in May and slated for further agency review in mid-July, would strictly limit who can object and when, eliminating many steps where the public has been able to observe and comment on decisions to issue or renew grazing permits. "They're clearly trying to reduce involvement of anyone other than ranchers," said a BLM employee who works on rangeland management. The agency said in a June news release the update "reflects the Trump administration's priority to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens, promote productive working lands and strengthen local economies." Current and former BLM employees told ProPublica and High Country News the rules do include some benefits, such as requiring ecological impact reviews for all public land uses, not just livestock, which have previously uncovered tens of millions of acres of overgrazing damage. The regulations would also allow informal handling of low-level violations, update code sections conflicting with recent court decisions, and give managers more flexibility to respond to local ecosystem needs. Ranching trade groups praised the overhaul, while critics warned it would make it harder to address overgrazing and easier to restock vacant allotments regardless of land condition.