ELKO, Nev. (AP) -- Federal officials are getting a mixed reaction to proposals to ease some U.S. grazing restrictions by giving ranchers more responsibility for the care of public lands.
Officials for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management are fine-tuning proposed changes to the grazing policy intended to "improve the long-term health and productivity of public land" used as rangeland by private ranchers.
The BLM's Elko District manages about 7.5 million acres in Elko and Eureka counties. Virtually all of it is allotted for grazing, to more than 200 permittees.
Rangeland health varies across the district, said Clint Oke, assisting field manager.
"We have rangeland in excellent, good, fair and poor conditions," Oke told the Elko Daily Free Press.
About 60 percent of rangeland locally is in either good or excellent condition, but the remainder -- 40 percent or a little more -- is in fair or poor condition, Oke said.
Proposed reforms include a new type of grazing unit, called a "reserve common allotment."
Under such a policy, two ranchers might each have BLM allotments of 500 acres and permits to each graze 500 animals. If one sold off all his cattle for health reasons, under a reserve-common agreement the other could graze cows over both allotments.
The net result is half the grazing pressure on the land, backers say.
Currently, several BLM rules exist concerned with keeping ranchers on their own allotments. Since these rules technically prohibit adopting the reserve-common allotment method, they would have to be changed, BLM spokeswoman Sharon Wilson said.
A variation of the reserve-allotment method could be voluntary allotment restructuring, which would merge grazing allotments of two permittees. One permittee temporarily would not graze, and the other would graze the entire area.
Under another proposal, a rancher who was able to make noticeable improvements to the ecology of a rangeland could gain some considerations from the BLM, possibly in terms of grazing fees, acreage allotted, number of cows allowed, or some combination, Wilson said.
"It could be a variety. Maybe through comment we'll come up with options," she said.
Bob St. Louis, Elko County Public Land Use Advisory Commission member, said the proposals sounded favorable to ranchers.
"To get credit for improving an ecology is long overdue," St. Louis said.
During public comments at a March 20 BLM meeting in Reno, rural northern Nevada rancher Dan Heinz urged more flexibility in the rules.
"I believe we need a minimum of day-to-day regulation on how the range is to be managed. There's a tendency to put out very specific restoration schedules, to be in 'X' pasture on a certain date with a certain number of cattle and then move on to the next pasture, and all these things made part of a grazing permit," he said.
Rose Strickland, a Reno resident and member of the Sierra Club, said the proposed regulations "appear directed to protect the 10 to 15 percent of permittees who are poor managers."
The BLM expects to publish a final version of proposed rules some time this summer, followed by a second comment period.
