Administration Cancels Plans to Hike Ranchers’ Grazing Fees

The Clinton Administration bowed to political pressures Wednesday and canceled plans to increase grazing fees for ranchers using public lands.

Instead, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said the highly charged fee issue will be deferred to the new Republican-led Congress.

Babbitt had made grazing fee increases a central part of his federal lands reform policies and had proposed doubling the fees over three years beginning in January.

Ranchers are now charged $1.98 per month per livestock unit--a cow and calf, or five sheep--for using federal grazing land. The reforms would have affected nearly 270 million acres of rangeland under the Bureau of Land Management.

Ranchers have vigorously opposed the fee increases. But environmentalists charge that low fees have led to widespread overgrazing and rangeland destruction. They argue that the current fees are far below market value.

“A decision on fee structure will be deferred to Congress,” Babbitt said in a statement. He said he had been unable to “develop a consensus on the fee issue” among Westerners involved in the debate.

Final implementation of the grazing regulations also was postponed for six months, giving the new Congress time to act.

More than a year ago, Babbitt outlined a proposal to reform federal grazing policies, including higher fees and requirements aimed at getting ranchers to adopt better, more environmentally protective grazing practices. He called fee increases an essential incentive to better stewardship of federal lands.