Number: 1986-11
WHEREAS, the grazing fees charged for the privilege of grazing domestic livestock on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the United States Forest Service have been set since 1978 by statutory formula established in the Public Rangelands Improvement Act (PRIA); and
WHEREAS, that formula expired at the end of 1985, necessitating the adoption of a new fee for 1986 and the years thereafter; and
WHEREAS, Congress required the BLM and Forest Service to prepare a grazing fee study to determine the equitability of the fees set by the current formula and recommend an appropriate fee system; and
WHEREAS, that study has been completed and demonstrates the gross inequities between the rates charged by private landowners and the formula established in PRIA (the public land rate being a fraction of the rates charged for comparable private lands); and
WHEREAS, the fees charged under the PRIA formula fail to cover the costs of administering the grazing programs and the costs of managing and restoring deteriorated public rangelands; and
WHEREAS, the enormity of this inequity is evidenced by numerous instances of permittees violating their permits by subleasing their public land grazing permits for several times the amount paid by them; and
WHEREAS, the public has made insistent input that the United States government receive fair compensation for livestock grazing on the public lands of the United States; and
WHEREAS, some recent legislative proposals would continue the current fee structure to the detriment of the U.S. Treasury and the people of the United States, while granting unfair subsidies in grazing fees to the small minority of western livestock operators who have access to public lands;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in annual meeting assembled March 20-23, 1986, in Seattle, Washington, expresses its opposition to legislation which seeks to continue unmerited grazing fee subsidies, and urges Congress and the Administration to establish fair and reasonable grazing fees for 1986 and thereafter that conform to a fair market value as documented in the grazing fee study.