Skip to main content
Log in

Recent developments in the law affecting livestock grazing on western riparian areas

  • Published:
Wetlands Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Since 1993 there have been numerous significant legal developments affecting livestock grazing on public-land riparian areas in the western United States. These include new regulations, standards, and guidelines for grazing on BLM lands and a series of judicial and administrative decisions applying environmental statutes, such as the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, to public lands grazing. Legislative and judicial efforts by the livestock industry to counteract these developments have met with only limited success. The new legal developments have established a set of substantive and procedural criteria that must be met before the BLM or the Forest Service issues a grazing permit affecting a riparian area. Enforcement of these criteria, however, will depend on the involvement of concerned individuals and organizations at the local management level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Literature Cited

  • Andrews, J. W. 1998. State trust lands: reconciling the public interest in environmental protection with trust management principles.In Proceedings of the 44th Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Denver, CO, USA (in press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Arizona State Office, Bureau of Lanc Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1997. Arizona standards for rangeland health and guidelines for grazing administration. Phoenix, AZ, USA.

  • Braun, R. H. 1986. Emerging limits on federal land management discretion: livestock, riparian ecosystems, and clean water law, Environmental Law 17:43–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1993. Riparian area management: Process for assessing proper functioning condition, Washington, DC, USA. Technical Reference 1737–9

  • Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1998. Healthy rangeland initiative: implementation of standards and guidelines. Washington, DC, USA. Instruction Memorandum No. 98–91.

  • California State Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interion 1998. Rangeland health standards and guidelines for California and Northwestern Nevada: Final EIS. Sacramento, CA, USA.

  • Chaney, E., W. Elmore, and W.-S. Platts. 1990. Livestock grazing on western riparian areas. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8. Denver, CO, USA.

  • Coggins, C. C. 1982. Of succotash syndromes and vacuous platitudes: the meaning of “Multiple Use, Sustained Yield” for public land management. University of Colorado Law Review 53:229–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colorado State Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1996. Standards for public land health and guidelines for livestock grazing management in Colorado, Lakewood, CO, USA.

  • Curtis, C. C. 1973. Managing federal lands: replacing the multiple use system. Yale Law Journal 82:787–805.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donahue, D. L. 1996. The untapped power of Clean Water Act section 401, Ecology Law Quarterly 23:201–301.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feller, J. M. 1991. Grazing management on the public lands: opening the process to public participation. Land and Water Law Review 26:571–596.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feller, J. M. 1994. What is wrong with the BLM’s management of livestock grazing on the public lands? Idaho Law Review 30:555–602.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feller, J. M. 1996. The Comb Wash case: the rule of law comes to the public rangelands. Public Land & Resources Law Review 17: 25–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feller, J. M. 1998. Legal constraints on public land livestock water developments: NEPA, FLPMA, MUSYA, and the Wilderness Act. p. 461–473.In Proceedings of a Symposium on Environmental. Economic, and Legal Issues Related to Rangeland Water Developments. Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleischner, T. L. 1994. Ecological costs of livestock grazing in western North America. Conservation Biology 8:629–644.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, B. L. 1995. Cows in hot water: regulation of livestock grazing through the federal Clean Water Act. Santa Clara Law Review 35:1269–1308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hage, W. 1994. Storm Over Rangelands: Private Rights in Federal Lands, Third edition. Free Enterprise Press, Bellevue, WA, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Hager, A. V. 1997. State school lands: does the federal trust mandate prevent preservation? Natural Resources and Environment 12-SUM:39–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horning, J. 1994. Grazing to extinction: endangered, threatened and candidate species imperiled by livestock grazing on western public lands. National Wildlife Federation. Washington, DC, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Idaho State Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1997. Idabo standards for rangeland health and guidelines for livestock grazing management. Boise, ID, USA.

  • McClaran, M. P. 1990. Livestock in wilderness: a review and forecast. Environmental Law 20:857–889.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montana State Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interion 1997. Montana/Dakotas standards for rangeland health and guidelines for livestock grazing management. Billings, MT, USA.

  • Nevada State Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1997. Bureau of Land Management Standards and Guidelines for Nevada, Mojave-Southern Great Basin Area. Reno. Nevada, USA.

  • Ohmart, R. D. 1996. Historical and present impacts of livestock grazing of fish and wildlife resources in western riparian habitats. p. 245–279.In P. R. Krausman (ed.) Rangeland Wildlife. Society for Range Management. Denver, CO, USA.

  • Oregon State Office. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1997. Standards for rangeland health and guidelines for livestock grazing management. Portland, OR, USA.

  • Pendery, B. M. 1997. Reforming livestock grazing on the public domain: ecosystem management-based standards and guidelines blaze a new path for range management. Environmental Law 27: 513–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reich, C. A. 1962. The public and the nation’s forests. California Law Review 50:381–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ring, R. 1994. “Unranchers” reach for West’s state lands. High Country News, July 25, 1994, Paonia, CO, USA

  • Safford Field Office. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1998. Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area Management Plan, Environmental Assessment. Finding of No Significant Impact, and Decision Record. Safford, AZ, USA.

  • Souder, J. A. and S. K. Fairfax. 1996. State Trust Lands: History, Management, and Sustainable Use. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strand, R. H. 1974. Statutory authority governing management of the National Forest System—time for a change? Natural Resources Lawyer 7:479–502.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. General Accounting Office. 1988a. Rangeland management: more emphasis needed on declining and overstocked grazing allotments. Washington, DC, USA. GAO/RCED-88-80.

  • U.S. General Accounting Office. 1990. Public lands: limited progress in resource management planning. Washington, DC, USA. GAO/RCED-90-225.

  • U.S. General Accounting Office, 1992. Rangeland management: Interior’s monitoring has fallen short of agency requirements. Washington, DC, USA. GAO/RCED-92-51.

  • Utah State Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1997. Standards for rangeland health and guidelines for grazing management on BLM lands in Utah. Salt Lake City, UT, USA.

  • Wyoming State Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1997. Standards for healthy ranglands and guidelines for livestock grazing management. Cheyenne, WY, USA.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Feller, J.M. Recent developments in the law affecting livestock grazing on western riparian areas. Wetlands 18, 646–657 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03161679

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03161679

Key Words

Navigation