November 29, 2003 By N.S. Nokkentved

The Daily Herald

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To submit a Letter to the Editor:

Ranching is all Calvin Crandall has ever known. He grew up with it and learned the business from his father.

"That's all I've ever done," the Springville rancher said.

He doesn't think much of a proposal that would allow ranchers to sell their federal public land grazing permits back to the government.

He opposes the proposal because it aims to take cattle off the public lands, he said.

"I can agree with part of it because it's voluntary," Crandall said. "But I'm against taking it permanently out of grazing."

Two bills introduced in Congress this summer, which would buy out grazing permits from willing ranchers, were conceived by the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign, an environmental organization critical of livestock grazing on public lands.

The Voluntary Grazing Permit Buyout Act and a similar bill affecting only Arizona were introduced by U.S. Reps. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Christopher Shays, R-Conn.

Campaign (The National Public Lands Grazing Campaign) president Andy Kerr this month sent a letter to more than 25,000 individuals and groups that hold livestock grazing permits on federal public lands, explaining and urging support for the two bills.

In his letter, Kerr quotes Grijalva: "This legislation will go a long way toward resolving the ongoing and contentious debate on public lands grazing in the West," Grijalva said. The legislation "will give much-needed relief to ranching families suffering the results of drought and other economic factors. At the same time, the bill will allow for the restoration of public lands that are no longer suitable for grazing."

Simply put, the bills offer to buy out federal grazing permits for $175 per "animal-unit-month" -- or AUM -- a grazing management unit that represents the amount of forage eaten by a cow and her calf in one month.

Some see the legislation as an attempt to get cattle off public lands.

The Utah Cattlemen's Association is not against individuals selling their permits but opposes the proposed legislation because the buyout would permanently end grazing on the associated allotments.

"As an association we are not in support of it," said Brent Tanner, the association's executive vice president.

"My thought is I don't like it at all," said Kay Hansen, president of the Spanish Fork Grazing LLC, which runs 2,141 head of cattle for about four months up the Spanish Fork Canyon. Because the company has several members, they all would have to agree to sell out.

"It isn't a workable proposition in my view," Hansen said.

A single rancher could sell out separately only if he or she can show that a portion of the allotment proportional to the permit can be isolated from grazing by the remaining stock.

Crandall asserts that grazing is good for the land.

"The land ought to be grazed," he said. If it is not grazed, wildlife will disappear.

"I have as much right to be there as the elk do," said Crandall, who runs about 700 head on a Bureau of Land Management permit west of Nephi.

Kerr notes that ranchers and environmentalists are not likely to agree on the effects or benefits of public land grazing.

In some places, cattle have turned desert springs into mud holes, grazed stream banks down to bare dirt, trampled the banks to mud, and left manure and dead, rotting carcasses in the streams.

Shane Sorenson of Pleasant Grove takes issue with domestic sheep that leave nothing for the deer on the mountain pastures where he likes to hunt.

On the Uinta National Forest, about 63 permittees hold permits for 71 allotments that provide about 103,000 AUMs, said Reese Pope, ecosystem group leader for the Uinta National Forest. Typically the grazing season runs from early June to mid-October.

Federal regulations prohibit him from commenting on proposed legislation.

"I'll just wait and see what happens," he said.

Forest Service land managers have the authority to change allotment management as conditions change, including reducing the number of livestock and closing the allotment without any compensation to the ranchers, said Dan Jiron, spokesman for the Intermountain Region.

In Utah County the BLM manages 82,464 acres that provide about 6,776 AUMs.

The federal government issues grazing permits for 10 years at a time. Most are renewed repeatedly. Ranchers must apply but do not pay the government for permits. Officially, permits can be transferred, but not bought or sold. Still, when ranches are sold, the public land grazing permit associated with the ranch is included in the price.

Unofficially, grazing permits sell for $50 to $80 per AUM, depending on location, the quality of forage and availability of water, Crandall said. Under the proposed buyout, his 1,500 AUMs would be worth $262,500.

The Spanish Fork company's 8,564 AUMs would be worth about $1.5 million.

The price of grazing permits, which can affect the value of a ranch, may be at the heart of the issue. The proposed offer of $175 per AUM sets the bar higher for buying grazing permits, Tanner said.

"It would make it harder for a young rancher to get in," he said. And it makes it harder for large ranchers to buy out smaller operators who go broke, retire or just want to get out of the business.

Kerr contends that's why livestock industry leaders oppose the proposal.

But support for the proposal is growing among ranchers in some areas, said Keith Raether, spokesman for the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign. About 170 ranchers in Arizona have registered their support.

Raether sees benefits on both sides of the argument: It saves taxpayers an annual $500 million subsidy; it gives ranchers a safety net in a time of drought and dire economic times; and it heals the land.

Nationwide, about 18 million AUMs are available on public lands. At $175 per AUM that pencils out to $3.15 billion. But the bills authorize only $100 million as the program is tested.

Ranchers pay $1.35 per AUM to graze on federal public land.

Buying and selling grazing permits to end grazing is not new, said Don Banks, BLM spokesman in the Utah state office.

Hunter groups have bought sheep permits in areas of bighorn sheep reintroductions. Recreation groups have bought permits to eliminate conflicts with livestock grazing. The Grand Canyon Coalition has bought permits in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

When livestock grazing is halted on allotments, the BLM has to amend its land use plan and reallocate the forage to from livestock to wildlife, Banks said.

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