The federal government manages about 640 million acres of land in the United States, including lands in national forests, grasslands, parks, refuges, reservoirs, and military bases and installations. Of the total federal lands, BLM and the Forest Service manage about 450 million acres for multiple uses, including grazing, timber harvest, recreation, minerals, water supply and quality, and wildlife habitat. BLM’s 12 state offices manage nearly 250 million acres in 12 western states, and the Forest Service’s 9 regional offices manage more than 190 million acres across the nation (see figs. 1 and 2). The majority of federal lands are located in the western half of the country. The federal government has managed grazing on federal lands for more than 100 years. Following the passage of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, the Department of the Interior created the Division of Grazing, later renamed the Grazing Service, to administer provisions of the act. Subsequently, the Grazing Service was merged with the General Land Office to form BLM. The act was passed to stop degradation of public lands caused by overgrazing and soil deterioration; to provide for the orderly use, improvement, and development of public lands; and other purposes. The act also provided for the issuance of permits and leases for these lands and set requirements for the distribution of funds received from grazing. The Forest Service managed grazing under its general authorities until 1950, when Congress enacted the Granger-Thye Act, specifically authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to issue grazing permits on national forest lands and other lands under the department’s administration. Additional laws affecting grazing on both BLM and western Forest Service lands were enacted in the 1970s. BLM’s and the Forest Service’s range grazing programs administer livestock grazing for permittees. Agency law enforcement assists when necessary—primarily to address grazing violations by nonpermittees that cannot be handled administratively. To provide access to grazing, the agencies divide their rangelands into allotments, which can vary in size from a few acres to hundreds of thousands of acres. Because of the land ownership patterns that occurred when the lands were settled, the allotments can be adjacent to private lands or intermingled with private lands. Under its authorities, BLM issues permits for grazing in allotments within its grazing districts and leases for grazing on BLM-administered lands outside grazing districts. To be eligible for a permit or lease on one of BLM’s allotments, ranchers, among other things, are required to own or control land or water, called a base property, to which preference for obtaining a permit or lease is attached. The Forest Service, which does not have grazing districts, uses permits to authorize grazing in its allotments. To be eligible for a permit under Forest Service policy, ranchers, among other things, must own base property and the livestock to be permitted. The agencies’ permits and leases specify the number and type of livestock allowed on the allotments, the time and duration of use for grazing, and special conditions or use restrictions. Agency field office staff conduct compliance inspections to help ensure that permittees are meeting the terms and conditions of their permits or leases. The agencies may modify permits or leases if range conditions are being degraded or suspend or cancel them if permit conditions are violated. With a few minor exceptions, permittees pay a grazing fee for the use of the federal land. The grazing fee BLM and the Forest Service charge in western states is based on a formula that was originally established by law to prevent economic disruption and harm to the western livestock industry, among other things. The formula expired after 7 years but was extended indefinitely by Executive Order 12,548 and has been incorporated into the agencies’ regulations. The fee derived from the formula is generally lower than the fees charged by other agencies, states, and private ranchers. In grazing year 2016, BLM charged ranchers $2.11 per animal unit month for horses/cattle and $0.42 for sheep and goats; the Forest Service charged the same rates per head month. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, based on the average private grazing land lease rate per animal unit month, the commercial value of forage in western states ranged from $9 to $39 in grazing year 2016. As we found in September 2005, the total grazing fees generated by federal agencies amounted to less than one-sixth of the agencies’ expenditures to manage grazing in 2004. We found that BLM and the Forest Service use most of the grazing fee receipts for range protection and improvements and deposit some receipts to the Department of the Treasury’s general fund, with some receipts distributed to states and counties. See appendix II for additional information on grazing, permits, and fees for BLM and the Forest Service. Unauthorized grazing includes instances in which livestock owners graze on BLM or Forest Service allotments without a permit or lease, as well as instances in which those with permits or leases violate the terms and conditions of those documents, such as by grazing more livestock than allowed by permit, grazing in areas that are closed to livestock, or grazing during unauthorized times of the year. It may be unintentional (non-willful) on the part of the livestock owner, such as when livestock stray through an unlatched gate into an area where they are not permitted to graze, or it may be intentional (willful or repeated willful) such as when a livestock owner purposefully grazes livestock in a manner that is not allowed by a permit or grazes livestock without obtaining a permit once or multiple times. Under their applicable regulations, BLM and the Forest Service may address unauthorized grazing by charging permittees penalties for unauthorized grazing; revising their permits; impounding livestock; or taking action that could lead to criminal penalties, most commonly for nonpermittees, as follows: BLM’s grazing regulations establish three levels of unauthorized grazing—non-willful, willful, and repeated willful—with progressively higher penalties for each level. The regulations require that BLM send out a written notice for every potential unauthorized grazing incident. Under certain circumstances, BLM can approve a nonmonetary settlement for non-willful unauthorized grazing. For willful and repeated willful incidents, in addition to the monetary penalties—the value of the forage consumed—the regulations specify that the offender shall be charged for any damages to the land and reasonable agency expenses incurred to resolve the violation, and BLM shall suspend or cancel all or portions of the grazing permit for repeated willful incidents. BLM may impound and dispose of livestock if the owner is unknown or the permittee fails to remove the livestock when ordered. BLM also has the authority to cite permittees and nonpermittees for grazing violations that subject them to criminal penalties. The Forest Service’s grazing regulations require the agency, except in certain circumstances, to determine a grazing use rate for unauthorized grazing. The regulations define unauthorized grazing as (1) livestock not authorized by permit to graze upon the land, (2) an excess number of livestock grazed by permittees, or (3) permitted livestock grazed outside the permitted grazing season or allotment. Under the regulations, the Forest Service can cancel or suspend a permit if the permittee does not comply with provisions and requirements in the grazing permit or applicable regulations. The agency can impound and dispose of unauthorized livestock or livestock in excess of those authorized by a grazing permit if they are not removed from the area within the periods prescribed by regulation. The Forest Service also has the authority to cite permittees and nonpermittees for grazing violations that subject them to criminal penalties. In our December 1990 report on unauthorized grazing on BLM lands, we found that BLM had no systematic method for detecting unauthorized grazing, and when offenses were detected, penalties were rarely assessed. We made five recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the BLM’S unauthorized grazing detection and deterrence efforts: Develop an unauthorized grazing detection strategy that will (1) establish detection as a workload measure and a reportable accomplishment for which managers are held accountable, (2) use visits to randomly selected allotments to provide systematic compliance coverage, and (3) target additional follow-up visits for those livestock operators who have a history of repeated violations. Either (1) ensure that penalties are assessed for all non-willful unauthorized grazing violations as provided for in BLM regulations or (2) amend BLM regulations to establish a procedure for the informal resolution of non-willful unauthorized grazing violations at the local level. Require that all unauthorized grazing incidents—including those now handled informally—be documented and made part of the permanent unauthorized grazing file. Ensure that field staff impose the penalties required under BLM regulations for willful and repeated willful unauthorized grazing. Develop a management information system to provide timely, reliable, and adequate information on such things as (1) the number of compliance visits conducted, (2) the number and level of violations identified, and (3) how each violation is resolved, including those resolved informally. BLM agreed with the recommendations and implemented one of the five by developing an unauthorized grazing detection strategy. The agency took steps toward implementing some of the others, but did not fully implement the remaining four recommendations. The frequency and extent of unauthorized grazing on BLM and Forest Service lands are largely unknown because according to agency officials the agencies prefer to handle most incidents informally and do not record them. The agencies’ databases contained information on nearly 1,500 incidents of unauthorized grazing where formal action was taken by the agencies’ range program or law enforcement field staff for grazing years 2010 through 2014. Unauthorized grazing incidents were recorded in the range management databases when a penalty for unauthorized grazing was billed to a permittee by program staff and in the law enforcement databases when a formal report or notice was entered by a law enforcement officer. However, agency field staff told us that most incidents they identify are handled informally—their preferred practice— and are not recorded in their databases or consistently recorded in paper files.