Opinion ID: 761771
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Controlling Statutes

Text: 4 Our review of the challenged 1995 grazing regulations is set against the backdrop of Congress' enacted policy regarding administration of the public lands. The Secretary of the Interior, through the BLM, manages approximately 170 million acres of public rangelands throughout the western United States as guided and constrained by the TGA, FLPMA, and PRIA. We therefore begin with an overview of those statutes.
5 Until 1934, the federal government left unregulated the administration of millions of acres of unappropriated public lands in the western states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. In response to damage to the public rangelands caused by decades of unregulated livestock grazing, Congress enacted the Taylor Grazing Act, establishing a threefold legislative goal: to regulate the occupancy and use of the federal lands, to preserve the land and its resources from injury due to overgrazing, and to provide for the orderly use, improvement, and development of the range. 43 U.S.C. § 315a. One of the key issues the Act was intended to address was the need to stabilize the livestock industry by preserving ranchers' access to the federal lands in a manner that would guard the land against destruction. See Taylor Grazing Act, ch. 865, 48 Stat. 1269 (June 28, 1934). 6 In order to accomplish these purposes, Congress provided for the issuance of grazing permits under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, authorizing the Secretary to identify lands chiefly valuable for grazing and raising forage crops, 43 U.S.C. § 315, to place these lands in grazing districts, id., and to issue permits within the districts or grant leases outside the districts to settlers, residents, and other stock owners to graze livestock, id. §§ 315, 315b, 315m. The TGA also authorizes the Secretary to allow permittees to install range improvements on their grazing allotments and provides that new permittees must pay reasonable value as determined by the Secretary for range improvements constructed and owned by a prior occupant. Id. § 315c. 7 In addition, Congress granted the Secretary broad discretionary authority to balance the interests of those who wish to use the government's land against the need to protect the land from injury. The TGA commands the Secretary to make such rules and regulations and establish such service, enter into such cooperative agreements, and do any and all things necessary to accomplish the purposes of the Act. Id. § 315a. The TGA further directs the Secretary to give renewal preference to those already holding permits, and to adequately safeguard[ ] the grazing privileges he recognizes, [s]o far as consistent with the purposes and provisions of the Act. Id. § 315b. 8
9 Enacted in 1976, FLPMA represents Congress' express recognition that in over forty years of land management under the TGA, the BLM had failed adequately to protect and enhance the federal lands. See 43 U.S.C. § 1751(b)(1) (Congress finds that a substantial amount of the Federal range lands is deteriorating in quality....); H.R.REP. NO. 94-1163, at 1 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 6175 ([I]n many instances [public land laws] are obsolete and, in total, do not add up to a coherent expression of Congressional policies adequate for today's national goals.). Owing to the TGA's apparent deficiencies, FLPMA instructs the Secretary to manage [through BLM] the public lands under principles of multiple use and sustained yield. 43 U.S.C. § 1732(a). Multiple use requires management of the public lands and their numerous natural resources so that they can be used for economic, recreational, and scientific purposes without the infliction of permanent damage. Id. § 1702(c). Sustained yield is defined as the achievement and maintenance in perpetuity of a high-level annual or regular periodic output of the various renewable resources of the public lands consistent with multiple use. Id. § 1702(h). 10 In order to manage the lands in accordance with the principles of multiple use and sustained yield, FLPMA requires land use planning: 11 The Secretary shall, with public involvement and consistent with the terms and conditions of this Act, develop, maintain, and, when appropriate, revise land use plans which provide by tracts or areas for the use of the public lands. Land use plans shall be developed for the public lands regardless of whether such lands previously have been classified, withdrawn, or set aside, or otherwise designated for one or more uses. 12 Id. § 1712(a) (emphasis added). In keeping with this mandate, FLPMA contains several provisions specific to livestock grazing which chiefly provide that all grazing permits must be issued subject to terms and conditions consistent with FLPMA. Id. § 1752. 13
14 Congress enacted PRIA in 1978. Among its purposes was to reaffirm a national policy and commitment to: ... manage, maintain, and improve the condition of the public rangelands so that they become as productive as feasible for all rangeland values. 43 U.S.C. § 1901(b)(2). PRIA set forth Congressional findings that vast segments of the public rangelands remained in an unsatisfactory condition and that increased management and funding were needed to address the problem. See id. § 1901(a)(1)-(3). One of PRIA's primary effects was to implement a new grazing fee formula for domestic livestock grazing on the public rangelands. See id. § 1905; see also BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, U.S. DEP'T OF THE INTERIOR, THE TAYLOR GRAZING ACT: FIFTY YEARS OF PROGRESS, 1934-1984, at 5 (noting Congress' failure to appropriate millions of dollars authorized by PRIA).