Rancher Stewardship on Public Ranges: A Recent Court Decision

Keywords

rancher stewardship, public ranges, agricultural economics

Abstract

Congress enacted the Experimental Stewardship Program (ESP) in the Public Rangeland Improvement Act (PRIA) to determine whether qualified permittees could be induced to improve public range conditions. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) implemented the ESP by developing the Cooperative Management Agreement (CMA) program, which made qualified permittees stewards over their grazing allotments. Congress in the PRIA also re-enacted the BLM's duty under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) to "prescribe" livestock numbers and seasons of use in grazing permits. A Federal District Court struck down the CMA program based on unjustifiably narrow constructions of the ESP and the BLM's duty under FLPMA. The BLM is currently preparing an appeal of the decision. Hence, the objective of this paper is to offer timely support for the CMA program by presenting an alternative view of the economic and legal issues which convinced the Court to strike the program down.

Original Publication Citation

Rancher Stewardship on Public Ranges: A Recent Court Decision (with Ray G. Huffaker) Natural Resources Journal, Vol. 27, No. 4, Fall, 1987, pp. 887-898.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

1987-10

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/5927

Publisher

Natural Resources Journal

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Economics

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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