Federal judge blocks Bureau of Land Management's grazing rules

In a ruling that harshly criticized the Bureau of Land Management, a federal judge on Friday blocked the agency's new grazing rules, saying it had given in to pressure from the livestock industry. The BLM violated the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in creating the rules, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled. Winmill's 52-age ruling said the BLM's rule revisions would have loosened restrictions on grazing on millions of acres of public land nationwide, limited the amount of public comment the BLM had to consider and diluted the BLM's authority to sanction ranchers for grazing violations. "While the BLM justifies the changes as making it more efficient, the BLM was not their originator -- it was the grazing industry and its supporters that first proposed them," Winmill wrote. "Past BLM regulations imposed restrictions on grazing and increased the opportunities for public input to reverse decades of grazing damage to public lands," Winmill wrote. "Without any showing of improvement, the new BLM regulations loosen restrictions on grazing. "They limit public input from the non-ranching public, offer ranchers more rights on BLM land, restrict the BLM's monitoring of grazing damage, extend the deadlines for corrective action, and dilute the BLM's authority to sanction ranchers for grazing violations."....Winmill also found fault with the rules themselves. The BLM reduced the number of interested parties that would be given notice of grazing allotment issues, and stopped consulting, cooperating and coordinating with the interested public at all on several types of allotment changes. "The changes substantially affect both the amount and quality of public input," Winmill said. The rules would have allowed the agency to rely only on limited data when reviewing potential grazing problems, and stretched the time given to address those problems to up to three years. While the BLM is "reluctant to convict cattle of grazing damage, the BLM is not hesitant to acquit," Winmill said. "The BLM never explains that distinction." The judge said the revised regulations will not take effect until the BLM receives consultation from the Fish and Wildlife Service as required under the Endangered Species Act and takes a hard look at the potential environmental impacts of the grazing changes. "The BLM is changing course here," Winmill said. "While the 1995 regulations erected protections against grazing damage and guarded against delay, the revisions at issue here promote delay."....