Cattle Industry Upset Over FS Planning Regs

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association continues to raise concerns to the U.S. Forest Service about the detrimental impacts its proposed forest planning rule would have on federal lands ranching. Joe Guild, a rancher from Nevada and chairman of NCBA’s Federal Lands Policy Committee, says the Forest Service should walk away from the proposed forest planning rule and work with cattlemen on a plan to manage the land and its resources while sustaining a productive ranching industry. NCBA Past President Bill Donald, a rancher in Montana, says cattlemen oppose the requirement to maintain viable populations of species of conservation concern. He said there is no scientific consensus on what level of any given population is viable or how it is to be managed. "It deals with a lot of species that are not covered under the Endangered Species Act now," Donald said. "As a matter of fact all species, not even vertebrates, so fungus and mold and all of those type of things. They can designate those species in need of conservation and once that happens it can virtually shut a permitee off the land."...more