America’s Ailing Overgrazed Rangelands
This commentary was originally published in the Summer 2024 edition of PEEReview.
The latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) paint a bleak picture of the ecological health of America’s public rangelands. Vast areas do not meet BLM’s own Land Health Standards for minimum quality of water, vegetation, and soils, as well as the ability to support wildlife. The biggest cause is systematic overuse by commercial livestock.
The PEER analysis looked at records from 2019 through 2023 of more than 21,000 BLM grazing allotments in ten western states. More than 56 million acres (an area larger than Idaho) fail BLM Land Health Standards. Livestock is identified as the major cause of failure for at least 37 million acres (an area bigger than Florida), making overgrazing by far the biggest cause of landscape health failure across the West.
“Simply put, much of the land in the American West is degraded by animal agriculture,” remarked Rocky Mountain PEER Director Chandra Rosenthal, noting a roughly one-to-one ratio for each acre of rangeland classified as meeting all standards and those failing. “By its own measures, BLM does not deserve passing marks on its main job – land management.”
Notably, another 38 million acres do not have completed assessments. This lack of assessments may mask even more extensive landscape damage, especially in a state like Nevada, which has the biggest slice of public range among any state. For each acre found to be meeting minimum Land Health Standards, more than three acres of Nevada are failing. Nevada also has the biggest share of unassessed range.
“These are figures that BLM does not make public,” added Rosenthal, pointing out that PEER has had to compile this information through extensive Freedom of Information Act requests, some of which entailed litigation, to pry these records out of BLM.
A comparison of the new data versus pre-2019 BLM records compiled by PEER shows some slight positive change, but overall half of the assessed lands failed minimum health standards during both periods. One big reason for the lack of improvement is that BLM continues to renew unmodified grazing permits for failing allotments.
PEER and allied groups are now suing BLM to stem overgrazing across huge stretches of fragile rangelands in the American West. Among other relief, the suit seeks a court order establishing a schedule for completion of long overdue environmental analyses on thousands of commercial allotments. We need a paradigm shift in how we manage our public rangelands, starting with holding livestock operators accountable for the environmental damage they cause.
This spring, BLM finalized the Public Lands Conservation Rule but, according to agency officials, it will not affect livestock operations. PEER has expressed concern that BLM is not using the legal tools it has at its disposal to address overgrazing and improve the health of western lands.
Chandra Rosenthal is the Director of PEER’s Rocky Mountain Office located in Denver, Colorado.
