Keywords

wild horse, public rangeland, agricultural economics, rangeland

Abstract

This paper explores an incentive-based management system to induce federal grazing permittees to choose sustained cattle stocking strategies which accommodate government-set wild horse numbers and nongrazing uses. Particular attention is paid to constraints imposed by federal grazing statutes. The proposed system employs increased livestock grazing fees to induce permittees to provide increased vegetation for consumption by wild horses and nongrazing uses. The negative impact of increased fees on permittee wealth is counterbalanced with compensatory transfer payments. Taken together, grazing fees and compensation payments induce multiple-use compliance by permittee-stewards and keep their discounted livestock profits intact at some predetermined level.