Opinion ID: 761771
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Grazing Adjudications Continued in 1978 Regulations

Text: 133 At least two statements from the majority's opinion demonstrate that we clearly do not share the same understanding of the issue before us today, particularly regarding the nature and role of the grazing adjudications. In discussing FLPMA and the 1978 regulations promulgated thereafter, the majority states that [w]hile the previously adjudicated grazing uses were to be recognized for the length of existing permits, 'future adjudications of grazing use would be based on criteria vastly different than those provided in the Federal Range Code.'  Maj. Op. at 1295-96 (quoting Interior Board of Land Appeals decision, McLean v. BLM, 133 IBLA 225 (1995)). The majority also states that [n]owhere in the 1978 regulations was there any requirement, or even the suggestion, that the authorizing officer must recognize or refer to the original grazing adjudications, or even the most recent adjudications, in issuing new permits. Maj. Op. at 1296 (emphasis added). The italicized portions, in particular, demonstrate that the majority thinks that under the new regulations, each time a ten-year permit is renewed, the Secretary somehow engages in a new adjudication. 134 As I understand it, this has never been the case, as the discussion above indicates. Rather, a grazing adjudication was a one-time decision of the Secretary, made when he first allocated grazing privileges on a particular allotment of the public range. Historically, there were many more applicants for use of the range than could be accommodated, so the Secretary had to grant grazing privileges to some and deny privileges to others. The adjudicatory process of allocating those privileges took nearly two decades. Thereafter, the Secretary engaged in that same type of adjudicatory process only when new public lands became available for grazing. In determining which applicants were to receive grazing privileges, the Secretary determined whether the applicant was a member of a preferred group listed in section three of the TGA, and evaluated the amount of forage on the public lands the applicant had typically used. Then, the Secretary issued a decision, issuing a grazing permit and also declaring the maximum level of forage the permittee could graze (i.e., the grazing preference). When a permit came up for renewal, the Secretary either renewed the permit in accordance with the grazing preference, or he denied the permit. Based on my understanding of this system, I can only conclude that the historically adjudicated grazing preference is an integral aspect of a permittee's grazing privileges, and in particular the preference right of the permittees to renewal of their permits, referred to in section three of the TGA. 135 I agree with the majority that passage of FLPMA and the 1978 regulations drastically changed the criteria that were to guide the Secretary in future adjudications. Indeed, the majority cites an Interior Board of Land Appeals decision that makes that point convincingly. See Maj. Op. at 1296 (quoting McLean,133 IBLA at 233). The majority, however, simply does not understand what that means. A future adjudication, as that phrase was used in the McLean decision, does not refer to the renewal of a grazing permit, as the majority asserts, nor to future decisions by the Secretary respecting allotments on public lands already under BLM control and with respect to which an adjudication has already occurred. Rather, a future adjudication is a post-1978 decision made by the Secretary to allocate permanent grazing privileges to various applicants when new lands come under BLM control and become available for grazing. McLean v. BLM illustrates well my point. There, the appellants had applied for a substantial increase in their active use in an allotment in which additional forage had become available for grazing. See McLean, 133 IBLA at 226. That allotment was under BLM control and was already open to grazing. Thus, the Secretary had already allocated grazing privileges on that land and adjudicated maximum grazing levels. Because the appellants were already making full use of their grazing preference in the allotment, their request was denied. In accordance with the 1978 regulations, the BLM Area Manager then allocated the newly available forage in the allotment to other permittees who were not making full use of their grazing preferences. The Area Manager's decision to increase those permittees' active use was not an adjudication. Rather, the Area Manager increased the other permittees' active use up to their fully authorized and previously adjudicated grazing levels (i.e., their grazing preferences). Those grazing preferences had been determined in a prior grazing adjudication. Indeed, the McLean case makes clear that the appellants' grazing preference dated from an adjudication that occurred at least no later than 1970, and more likely well before that. See id. at 227. The McLean case also makes clear that a future adjudication (i.e., a post-1978 adjudication) only occurs when completely new land comes within BLM control, and numerous applicants vie for the right to graze that land. In McLean, new land had not become available; rather, land already under BLM control and open to grazing saw increased levels of forage. The Secretary did not engage in a new adjudication to allocate that forage, but instead increased the active use of those permittees already with grazing privileges in that allotment in proportion to the preference levels previously adjudicated. 136 The McLean decision makes clear that most permittees' grazing preferences arose in pre-1978 grazing adjudications since most BLM land was opened to grazing immediately following the TGA's passage in 1934. Some grazing preferences derived from post-1978 adjudications, when new land became available for grazing. In either case, however, the only difference is the criteria that guided the Secretary in allocating the grazing privileges. Both sets of grazing preferences derived from grazing adjudications and were individualized to particular permittees. An original grazing decision awarded forage use according to a particular permittee's application for a grazing permit. If a permittee's grazing permit were renewed at the end of the life of the permit, the adjudicated grazing preference generally continued unchanged in that new permit. In most cases, recognition of the results of the original grazing decisions continued up to the 1995 revisions. See, e.g., Ortiz v. BLM, 126 I.B.L.A. 8, 9 (1993) (discussing permittee's grazing preference which, despite numerous transfers, dates from the early 1930s, when it was issued to the original applicant). In the time since BLM issued an original grazing decision, changes in grazing preferences have been individualized, based on the circumstances of particular permittees and the condition of particular grazing allotments. Thus, until the 1995 regulations, the Secretary had safeguarded the results of the original grazing adjudications through continued recognition of the original grazing preference. 137