The
Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 (43 USC 315), signed by President Roosevelt,
was intended to "stop injury to the public grazing lands [excluding
Alaska] by preventing overgrazing and soil deterioration; to provide for
their orderly use, improvement, and development; [and] to stabilize the
livestock industry dependent upon the public range" (USDI 1988). This
Act was pre-empted by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976
(FLPMA).
Introduction
Approximately
80 million acres of land valuable for grazing and forage crops were
available to be placed into grazing districts authorized by the Taylor
Grazing Act. To administer these grazing districts, Secretary of the
Interior Harold Ickes created a Division of Grazing with Farrington
Carpenter, a Colorado rancher, at the helm. Carpenter held a series of
meetings with ranchers and state officials to determine grazing district
boundaries. The first grazing district (Rawlins), was established in
Wyoming on March 20, 1935; others soon followed. By June 1935, over 65
million acres had been placed in grazing districts. All the established
grazing districts are still in effect today.
Secretary
Ickes fired Carpenter in 1939 and replaced him with Richard Rutledge.
With a new director, the Division of Grazing was renamed the U.S.
Grazing Service. Rutledge wanted to establish an effective conservation
agency. In order to achieve this, he laid out rules of conduct for his
employees. Today, these standards are still the foundation of the Bureau
of Land Management's mission. On July 16, 1946, the Grazing Service and
the General Land Office merged to form the Bureau of Land Management.
Following are some of those principles.
Self Reliance:
There is often the tendency upon receiving a tough assignment to push
it aside and wait until you can ask the boss a lot of questions
concerning the way he wants the job done. This results in
procrastination and in a leaning [sic] attitude on the part of the doer.
Stand on your own two feet and take responsibility.
Organizational Attitude:
No organization can be successful if cliques or jealousies exist. These
things tend to retard and to break down the spirit of the organization.
Likewise, feuds and personal fights are extremely detrimental and are
bound to react upon someone. Troublemakers have no place in the
organization. Rating officers must take recognition of such things. The
ability to get along with and work with others, and the attitude toward
others, are important factors in efficiency determination.
Public Service:
Let's get firmly fixed in our minds at the outset that we are public
servants, employed by the public and paid by the public from funds
provided by taxation in some form. We are responsible to the entire
public and are not bureaucratic bosses to work our will upon the public
as we see fit.
Sharp Practices:
There can be no place in the administrator's thoughts or actions for
anything that approaches sharp practices. Stockmen are usually not as
well informed as the administrator. Many times they are trusting,
depending upon the administrator. There should be no tendency toward
scheming or taking advantage of lack of information or ignorance. Your
actions should always be square, with equity and fairness.
Mixing:
This is somewhat akin to friendliness, although it goes farther. It is
very necessary that an administrator mix with or contact all kinds of
people, meetings, associations, church groups, and others. Be a part of
the community.
Self-Justification:
One of the very worst habits that an administrator can fall into is that
of trying to justify his actions under all circumstances. If an
administrator had made a mistake, the thing to do is to face the
situation and correct the action. An administrator can lose the respect
and confidence of his users very quickly by adopting an attitude of
self-justification.
Capriciousness:
The administrator should avoid actions which might be termed capricious.
Any funny notion or foolish idea, or snap judgement, may take the turn
of capriciousness. Keep your feet on the ground and remember that you
are business men [sic], doing business.
Under the
current grazing regulations (43 Code of Federal Regulations Part 4100),
there are four differences in BLM's administration of livestock grazing
on section 15 leases and section 3 permits.
Section 3 of the Act
Section 3 of the Taylor Grazing Act concerns grazing permits issued on public lands within
the grazing districts established under the Act. It gave leasing
preference to landowners and homesteaders in or adjacent to the grazing
district lands. Permits were issued for not more than 10 years.
Base Property Requirements:
Base property is land, owned or controlled by a BLM permittee, which
serves as the permittee's base for a livestock operation. The land must
be capable of producing crops or forage that can be used to support
livestock for a specified period of time. Under a section 3 permit, the
base property does not have to adjoin the public lands being used for
grazing livestock.
Domestic Use Grazing Permits:
Section 5 of the Taylor Grazing Act and the grazing regulations made
provision for the issuance of free subsistence grazing permits on public
lands inside a grazing district. There was no similar provision for
free domestic use or subsistence grazing on the section 15 lease lands.
Distribution of Grazing Receipts:
Receipts from grazing on section 3 lands are distributed three ways:
50% goes to range betterment projects, 37½% remains in the US Treasury,
and 12½% is returned to the state. In Wyoming, the 12% is administered
by thegrazing advisory boards established under Wyoming Statutes 9-571
and 9-572.
Section 15 of the Act
Section 15 of the Taylor Grazing Act concerns issuing grazing leases on public lands outside
the original grazing district boundaries. It states that "The Secretary
of the Interior is further authorized, in his discretion, where vacant,
unappropriated, and unreserved lands of the public domain are so
situated . . . . to lease any such lands for grazing purposes, upon such
terms and conditions as the Secretary may prescribe . . . ."
Base Property Requirements:
As described under "Section 3" above, base property is land, owned or
controlled by a BLM permittee or lessee, which may serve as a base for a
livestock operation. The land must have the capability to produce crops
or forage that can be used to support the livestock authorized for a
specified period of time. The base property supporting a section 15
grazing lease must adjoin the leased public lands unless no applicant
owns adjoining lands. In most cases, the base property for a section 15
lease adjoins, surrounds, or is intermingled with the leased public
lands.
Preference Lease Rights of Isolated Tracts:
The Taylor Grazing Act and the current regulations provide for giving a
preference to applicants having base property which adjoins or corners
the public lands they apply to lease. The preference right to lease the
whole tract is given where the public lands consist of isolated tracts
embracing 760 acres or less. This lease preference is available for a
period of 90 days after the tract has been offered for lease.
Domestic Use Grazing Permits: Under Section 15, no provision for free domestic use or subsistence grazing on the section 15 lease lands is made.
Distribution of Grazing Receipts:
The receipts from grazing on section 15 public lands are distributed
two ways: 50% goes to range betterment projects and 50% is returned to
the state. In Wyoming, the portion returned to the state is distributed
back to the counties in which it originated under state statute 9-570.
From
1934 to 1968, grazing use on the 16 million acres of Section 15 public
lands was authorized under 10-year leases. Grazing fees were assessed on
an acreage basis. Lessees were required to pay the lease regard-less of
whether or not they actually had livestock on the leased lands. No
provisions were made for refund or nonpayment due to drought, fire, or
other factors.
In August 1968, regulation changes
were implemented to place the Section 15 public lands under "multiple
use management" (43 CFR 4125.1-1). Key changes made to the regulations
are as follows.
Federal Land Policy & Management Act of 1976
The
Federal Land Policy and Management Policy Act of 1976 (FLPMA) was
passed to establish policy for managing BLM-administered public lands.
To ensure long-term stability and use of BLM-administered public lands
by the live-stock industry, FLPMA authorized 10-year grazing permits and
required a two-year notice of cancellation. The Act also directed
grazing advisory boards (formed under the Taylor Grazing Act) to guide
the BLM in develop-ing allotment management plans and allocating range
betterment funds.
Unlike
the Taylor Grazing Act, FLPMA did not distinguish between grazing
permits and leases. In sections 401 through 403 of FLPMA, which deals
with grazing management on the public lands, the term "permit or lease"
appears over 25 times together and never as only "permit" or "lease."
The clear intent of Congress is that BLM's grazing administration on all
public lands be consistent for both permits and leases.
The
BLM's grazing regulations were changed in July 1978 to eliminate
separate sections addressing admin-istration of section 3 permits and
section 15 leases. This made the regulations consistent with the
language of FLPMA in that no distinction is made between permits and
leases.
Selective Management Policy
The
BLM's selective management policy is used extensively in administering
grazing leases. The selective management policy requires that BLM apply
its limited workforce and budget to those lands providing the greatest
potential for improvement and public benefit. Grazing allotments are
separed into three management categories: "I" (improve), "M" (maintain),
and "C" (custodial). Generally, leases consisting of small, iso-lated
tracts of public lands are managed custodially. BLM's major emphasis on
the custodial leases is with var-ious administrative actions such as
billings, lease renewals, and transfers. On the larger blocks of public
land that offer the best opportunity for multiple use management
initiatives, BLM works with the grazing lessees to take actions or
authorize uses to achieve various resource management objectives. In
other words, the BLM's management and administration of custodial or "C"
category allotments is similar to the old (pre-1968) section 15 leases.
Administration of grazing on the larger blocks of public land in the
"I" and "M" categories is similar to administration of section 3
permits.
Standards & Guidelines
Standards for Healthy Rangelands and Guidelines for Livestock Grazing Management
became effective August 21, 1995 in accordance with the Department of
Interior's final rule for grazing administration. The development and
application of these standards and guidelines are to achieve the four
fundamentals of rangeland health outlined in the grazing regulations (43
CFR 4180.1). Those four fundamentals are: (1) watersheds are
functioning properly; (2) water, nutrients, and energy is cycling
properly; (3) water quality meets state standards; and (4) habitat for
special status species is protected.
Standards
address the health, productivity, and sustainability of the BLM
administered-public rangelands and represent the minimum acceptable
conditions for the public rangelands. The standards apply to all
resource uses on public lands. Guidelines provide for, and guide the
development and implementation of, reasonable, responsible, and
cost-effective management practices at the grazing allotment and
watershed level. The guidelines are management practices that will
either maintain existing desirable conditions or move rangelands toward
statewide standards within reasonable timeframes.
The
standards for Wyoming were developed in cooperation with the Wyoming
Resource Advisory Council, the State of Wyoming, and BLM staff. The
BLM's current selective management policy serves as a base for the
allotment review along with other allotment priorities. Over time all
grazing allotments will be addressed for standards and guidelines.
Grazing Regulation Changes
Other
changes that became effective August 21, 1995 that occurred with the
Department of the Interior's final rule for grazing administration are:
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Sunday, April 20, 2014
The Taylor Grazing Act
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