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

Heading: The post-1978 regulations.

Text: 47 As the drafters of FLPMA envisioned, managing the federal lands through land use planning is a dynamic process that has often led the various Secretaries of Interior to alter the governing regulations. See H.R. REP. NO . 94-1163, at 5 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 6175, 6179 (the BLM and the Forest Service treat land use planning as dynamic and subject to change with changing conditions and values). By 1994, many aspects of the original 1978 regulations had been altered, effectively softening the requirement that grazing preferences must at all times be consistent with land use plans. The 1978 regulations specified that terms and conditions should be modified or canceled if the condition of the range requires modification of grazing use ... at any time. 43 C.F.R. 4120.2-1(b) (1978). However, the regulations in effect in 1994 specified that the authorized officer may make changes, which were required to be supported by monitoring, as evidenced by rangeland studies conducted over time, unless the change is either specified in an applicable land use plan or necessary to manage, maintain or improve rangeland productivity. 43 C.F.R. § 4110.3 (1994) (emphasis added). Whereas the 1978 regulations required livestock grazing permits to contain terms and conditions identified in land use plans, 43 C.F.R. § 4120.2 (1978), the 1994 version merely stated: Livestock grazing permits and leases shall contain terms and conditions necessary to achieve the management objectives for the public lands and other lands under Bureau of Land Management administration, 43 C.F.R. § 4130.6 (1994). 48 Yet despite the changes from 1978, the primacy of the land use plans mandated by FLPMA remained apparent in the fact that changes specified in land use plans did not require other justification. Most significantly, the provisions for permit renewal remained exactly the same as they had been in 1978, that is, permits were renewable so long as the permittee or lessee accepts the terms and conditions to be included by the authorized officer in the new permit or lease. Id. § 4130.2. Once again, the regulations effective in 1994 offer no hint that recognition of or reference to the original grazing adjudications was in any way required. The authorized officer was clearly empowered to specify the terms and conditions--including the numbers of stock and seasons of use--upon the renewal of grazing permits in accordance with land use plans.