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Cite as: 529 U. S. 728 (2000)

733

Opinion of the Court

obtained control of great areas of the public land . . . who
object . . . because it will break the control that these few
big men now have over the lands which they do not actually
own.”
Ibid. Whatever the opposition’s source, bills re-
ﬂecting Powell’s approach did not become law until 1934.

By the 1930’s, opposition to federal regulation of the fed-
eral range had signiﬁcantly diminished. Population growth,
forage competition, and inadequate range control all began
to have consequences both serious and apparent. With a
horrifying drought came ‘dawns without day’ as dust storms
swept the range. The devastating storms of the Dust Bowl
were in the words of one Senator “the most tragic, the most
impressive lobbyist, that ha[s] ever come to this Capitol.”
79 Cong. Rec. 6013 (1935). Congress acted; and on June 28,
1934, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Taylor Graz-
ing Act into law.

B

43 U. S. C. § 315.

The Taylor Act seeks to “promote the highest use of the
public lands.”
Its speciﬁc goals are to
“stop injury” to the lands from “overgrazing and soil deterio-
ration,” to “provide for their use, improvement and develop-
ment,” and “to stabilize the livestock industry dependent on
the public range.” 48 Stat. 1269. The Act grants the Sec-
retary of the Interior authority to divide the public range-
lands into grazing districts, to specify the amount of grazing
permitted in each district, to issue leases or permits “to
graze livestock,” and to charge “reasonable fees” for use of
It speciﬁes that
the land.
preference in respect to grazing permits “shall be given . . .
to those within or near” a grazing district “who are landown-
ers engaged in the livestock business, bona ﬁde occupants or
§ 315b. And,
settlers, or owners of water or water rights.”
as particularly relevant here, it adds:

43 U. S. C. §§ 315, 315a, 315b.

“So far as consistent with the purposes and provisions
of this subchapter, grazing privileges recognized and ac-