Advocacy group doubts quality of BLM data on rangeland

A Washington D.C.-based environmental group this week challenged the quality of Bureau of Land Management data on the health of rangeland allotments in 13 western states. The group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, argues in a complaint it filed with BLM that the 2013 Rangeland Inventory, Monitoring and Evaluation report switched from more specific land quality classifications to the binary categories, “land achieving” and “land not achieving.” The data also didn’t distinguish between allotments failing the standards because of livestock grazing versus other causes. Previous reports classified BLM allotments on a spectrum that indicated whether the rangelands met all health standards and whether steps were taken to remedy standards not met. The PEER complaint asks BLM to rescind its fiscal year 2013 report and reissue one based on the historical categories. “BLM is obscuring the very information Congress and the public need to gauge success or failure of rangeland management,” said Kirsten Stade, who filed the complaint on behalf of PEER...more