BLM to post ranchers names and mailing address on website

In a move that will increase the transparency of its records, the Bureau of Land Management published in Wednesday, Dec. 29's Federal Register a notice announcing a change in the way that the agency handles certain personal information relating to public land ranchers. With the change, which is consistent with a recent ruling of the U.S. District Court for Idaho, the BLM will post on a publicly accessible website reports that include the official mailing addresses of nearly 18,000 BLM grazing permittees and lessees. Personal telephone numbers of and financial information about public land ranchers will not be made available on the publicly accessible website. The record system change, formally known as a notice of amendment to an existing system of records, seeks to balance mandates from two Federal laws with different purposes -- the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1966 (as amended), which calls for full or partial disclosure of certain government records and the Privacy Act of 1974 (as amended), which establishes procedures governing the collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of personal identifying information about individuals.
Unless comments are received that would require a contrary determination, the change will take effect after a 40-day public comment period that began Dec. 29 and ends Feb. 7, 2011. Anyone interested in commenting on the amendment may do so by submitting written comments to: BLM Privacy Office, 1849 C Street, N.W., Room 725 LS, Washington, D.C. 20240. E-mailed comments should be sent to privacy@blm.gov. Commenters should be aware that the entire content of their comments, including their personal identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. For further information, please contact Robert Roudabush, Division Chief, Rangeland Resources, Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C Street, N.W., Room 201 LS, Washington, D.C. 20240; phone number: 202-912-7222; e-mail: Rob_Roudabush@blm.gov...more

Go here to view the Federal Register notice.

And this is from the Carlsbad Current-Argus

..."That's a little disturbing. I have misgiving about this," said Alisa Ogden, a Carlsbad rancher and past president of the New Mexico Cattle Grower's Association. "This is something several environmental groups have been trying to get done with Forest Service leases and permits on other public lands."... But Woods Houghton, Eddy County Extension Service agriculture agent, said he is not so sure that the financial information concerning BLM permitees and lessees can be kept confidential. "It probably wouldn't take a genius to figure it out. Anyone with a calculator can figure out the financial situation of the rancher if certain information is made available," Houghton said. "It might be harder to figure that out in states where there is more private land mixed in with federal leases. But in this part of the country it is different. "We have year-round grazing and if someone knows the number of acres in the grazing permit and the number of cattle, it is easy to figure out the rancher's financial situation. Can you imagine someone publishing the inventory of a hardware store, or any business? It would give their competitors an edge." Ogden agreed and added that any information about a rancher's business made publically accessible could be detrimental to the rancher. "A lot of the time, when applying for a loan for any type of work on the ranch, what you have is taken into consideration," Ogden said. "Having information about the rancher on the Website could be detrimental. It can be used against you by a lender. The leasing of public lands is a contract between you and the government. You usually don't publically disclose contract information. That's something that should not be let out." Eddy County Commissioner Lewis Derrick, a rancher from Artesia whose ranching operation is about 50 percent on BLM leased lands, said he intends to read the notice in the Federal Register before determining the full impact of the measure.