Proposed Law Would Make It Easier To Remove Livestock From Public Lands

New legislation introduced in the U.S. House Thursday would make it easier for conservation groups to remove cattle and sheep from federal lands. The proposed law, sponsored by Rep. Adam Smith, D-WA, would allow environmentalists to buy grazing permits from ranchers who are willing sellers and then retire them — essentially ending grazing on the public lands the rancher was using. The “Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act” is supported by more than a dozen conservation groups, including the Property and Environment Research Center, a free-market, non-profit think tank. “I think this is a great alternative to conflicts over public lands grazing,” said PERC research fellow Shawn Regan. Regan argues the law would address problematic grazing allotments — such as areas where there is a risk of disease transmission from livestock to wild animals, or increased chances of depredation by wolves or federally protected grizzly bears — without devolving into costly litigation from environmental groups. “It gives ranchers an ability to relinquish those permits and get compensated for them instead of getting endlessly litigated,” he said...MORE

I previously posted about this here.