Opinion ID: 761771
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Federal Range Code2

Text: 36 After enactment of the TGA in 1934, the Secretary of the Interior began the process of establishing grazing districts, issuing permits, and granting leases. At the time of the TGA's passage, the number of qualifying applicants far exceeded the amount of grazing land available to accommodate them. Therefore, the Department of the Interior (DOI) instituted a detailed adjudication process, guided by a set of priorities articulated in section three of the TGA, to determine which applicants would receive grazing permits. First priority in the issuance of permits went to applicants who owned land or water, i.e., base property, in or near a grazing district, who were dependent on the public lands for grazing, who had used their land or water for livestock operations in connection with the public lands in the five years preceding the TGA's enactment, and whose land or water was situated so as to require the use of public rangeland for economic livestock operations. See DIVISION OF GRAZING, U.S. DEP'T OF THE INTERIOR, FEDERAL RANGE CODE, §§ 2(g)-(h), 4(a), 6(b)(1) (1938). Once the Secretary issued a favorable grazing decision regarding an individual applicant, the applicant received a ten-year permit which specified the maximum number of livestock, measured in AUMs, that the permittee was entitled to place in a grazing district.