031211 Bush Pursues New Rules For Cattle GrazingDecember 6, 2003Washington - The Bush administration, departing from Clinton-era restrictions on managing rangeland, is proposing new rules aimed at helping livestock owners whose cattle range on public lands. The new rules would give the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) two years, instead of one, to make grazing decisions needed to maintain healthy ranges, according to agency documents obtained yesterday by The Associated Press. Interior Secretary Gale Norton plans to announce the proposal today to a convention of livestock owners in Albuquerque, N.M. She describes the proposal as an attempt to improve grazing management and help continue public-lands ranching in the rural West. But the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said that it expects the proposal to mark a return to practices that have allowed decades of overgrazing and other unsustainable grazing practices. The rules also would require more studies and monitoring any time the BLM evaluates whether health standards for rangeland are being met and reward livestock owners by letting them split ownership with the BLM for improvements such as fences, wells and pipelines. The proposal is to be published in the Federal Register on Monday, and the BLM also plans to release a draft study of the proposal's environmental impact this month. The public is being given at least 60 days to comment.
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