Public lands ranchers joined Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, as the secretaries signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to launch their Grazing Action Plan.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Public Lands Council (PLC) leaders and members then participated in a roundtable discussing cooperative work to address longstanding challenges for federal lands grazing permittees. PLC President Tim Canterbury, PLC Past President Mark Roeber, and Industry Issues Committee Chairman Nate Thomson were joined by NCBA President-elect Kim Brackett, American National CattleWomen (ANCW) Past President Nikki Weston, Washington ranchers Stephanie and Nick Martinez, Arizona permittee Dan Bell, and Colorado rancher Nancy Roberts in raising critical ranching issues to be addressed.
“Public lands ranchers are resilient by nature, but we still need significant relief from the burdensome federal regulations that make it harder to do our jobs every day. This MOU will make it easier to ranch on public lands and will help improve the health of western landscapes,” said PLC President and Colorado permittee Tim Canterbury. “By speeding up the permitting process and expanding the use of targeted grazing, the federal government is ensuring that more ranchers will keep ranching and that rangelands will face less degradation and destruction from wildfires and mismanagement. PLC appreciates USDA and the Interior Department standing with livestock producers in the West and putting this MOU and grazing plan into action.”
The MOU outlines cooperation between the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on the Grazing Action Plan, released by USDA last year. This plan focuses on boosting rancher resiliency by assessing vacant allotments, unifying permitting frameworks between agencies, expanding the use of targeting grazing to prevent wildfires, and establishing a rancher liaison program for wildfire incident command centers.
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