Grazing Amendment Seeks to Protect Idaho Permits

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — The Public Lands Council is backing an amendment to the federal appropriations bill that would protect Idaho Bureau of Land Management grazing permits now in doubt due to a recent federal court decision.

For the past decade, grazing interests have succeeded each year in attaching language to the bill, called a rider, allowing permits to be renewed until the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service can get caught up on a backlog of required environmental reviews.

Dustin Van Liew, the council’s executive director, said the BLM now has 5,600 permits that have expired but still await reviews throughout the West, and the Forest Service has 2,600 outstanding reviews.

In late September, however, Idaho Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled the rider that has temporarily exempted expiring permits from environmental reviews only applies to the National Environmental Policy Act. Winmill’s order specifies that a separate rangeland health analysis must still be completed for BLM permits to be reissued under the rider in his state.

“It could impact turnout in Idaho on permits (expiring) this spring, but it could also potentially impact hundreds of permits that were written under the rider before (Winmill) issued the order reinterpreting what it means,” Van Liew said. “This judge is now turning on its head congressional intent for a decade saying there actually is analysis that needs to take place, which we completely disagree with.”

The rider has already been included in the proposed appropriation’s bill, as usual. But the council has offered an amendment to the rider seeking to clarify that it was Congress’s intent to exempt permits from all environmental reviews. The council also plans to appeal Winmill’s ruling to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

If the council’s amendment fails, the next appropriations bill would be a year off. Regarding the amendment’s chances, Van Liew said he’s optimistic but acknowledged, “It is a bit tougher of a lift in Congress this year just because the issue has arisen so late in the game.”

BLM spokeswoman Sarah Wheeler said the rider has given her agency flexibility to prioritize grazing permits to review.

“We’re still trying to figure out how Winmill’s decision affects us,” Wheeler said, adding the agency has scheduled a meeting for later this month on the issue.

Van Liew admits it’s a long shot, but he said the council also has negotiations underway to enact a more permanent solution to the problem of expiring permits during the lame-duck session. Members are pushing for Congress to pass the Grazing Improvement Act, which would codify language in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to renew expiring permits with backlogged environmental reviews without the necessity of passing an annual rider.

“Obviously, it’s critical,” said Peter Orwick, executive director at American Sheep Industry Association. “The land managers are so far behind on getting the NEPA process done, and you have some grazing activist groups suing the federal government about more and more federal lands and actions.”

Originally Posted By Capital Press