Anti-Grazing Activists Pan
Domenici Permit-Saving Plan

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Anti-grazing activists — predictably — are criticizing a proposal by U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., that would allow ranchers on public rangeland to renew their grazing permits even if environmental reviews of their ranching operations have not been completed.

The Domenici plan is a reaction to efforts by the activists to use bureaucratic delays and backlogs to force ranchers off the land.

An unusually large number of grazing permits are set to expire this year, and a recent court decision — sought by the anti-grazing crowd — requires the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to complete environmental reviews before it renews grazing permits.

Federal land managers say that, even without the legislation, they have no plans to suspend grazing while they work on the required environmental studies.

But Domenici says the legislation is needed to protect ranchers from problems that might arise when the federal land leases expire next month.

``I'm saying ranchers should not be treated unfairly because the (BLM) cannot get its job done in a timely manner,'' Domenici, R-N.M., said recently.

Domenici has tacked the proposal onto an annual appropriations bill. The Senate is expected to approve the proposal this week.

Nearly 5000 grazing permits are scheduled to expire on Oct. 1, and environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act will not be done on many of those grazing allotments before the expiration date, said BLM spokesman Rem Hawes. About 700 of the permits set to expire are in New Mexico.

``We've got a big bulge in the workload,'' Hawes said.

Anti-grazing activists claim Domenici, by proposing legislation that would automatically extend leases without changes, unnecessarily exempts ranchers from environmental laws. They contend the proposal would hurt other public lands users and the environment.

``The scary thing about this rider for western public lands is that Sen. Domenici with a few sentences has managed to accomplish a lot of what he tried to accomplish in the past with grazing riders,'' said Fran Hunt, a lobbyist for Wilderness Society.

``The impact on the land and on other land users would go on for an indefinite period of time,'' Hunt said.

What Hunt is careful not to say is that the suspension of grazing her group and others seek would impact ranchers permanently. Those whose permits are withheld for months or even years pending essentially pointless bureaucratic reviews would be forced out of business — precisely what the anti-grazing radicals want to see.

A letter to senators from a chosen group of law professors contends that Domenici's proposal would prevent BLM managers from making changes to grazing operations until the environmental studies are completed, but Domenici disagrees.

``My amendment does not shield any grazing permit renewals from the full environmental process, but it would work to alleviate some of the uncertainty created by the slow pace of the BLM's environmental reviews,'' Domenici said last week.