When top federal land managers suggested this month that millions of acres of public lands leased for grazing livestock could count toward the Biden administration’s aggressive conservation plan, environmentalists were quick to slam the idea.
After all, according to data compiled by vocal grazing critics like the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, more than a third of the 155 million acres leased to ranchers for cattle, horses, sheep and goats by the Bureau of Land Management fails to meet existing standards for water, vegetation and other health markers.
But some advocates see the discussion about grazing and conservation as potentially opening the door to a long-sought goal: grazing reform.
“Grazing impacts get ignored,” asserted Kirsten Stade, PEER’s grants and special projects manager, who characterized unhealthy rangeland as a “moonscape.”
