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Message from the Public Lands Council
What’s Idaho got to do with it?
Breaking down how the political cycle affects public lands & where Idaho will likely see the impact.
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This time of the year, most people are spending their time worrying about how long they’re going to stick to their new years’ resolutions or working off the sweets from the Christmas holiday – usually by chopping as much ice as Mother Nature allows. In the nation’s capital, however, January is the time when new Representatives and Senators come to town, fresh off their recent victory and brimming with enthusiasm for all the things they’ll do with their newfound roles. The first few weeks of the year are filled with negotiations over committee assignments, jockeying for attention from leadership, and staffing their offices with the best and brightest to go to work for the district.
Because of this schedule, January is often a great time for organizations like the Public Lands Council to do a bit of a Congressional reset. This is especially true in years immediately following elections; since Congress runs on a two-year cycle, Januarys after elections mark the beginning of a new Congress. Any bills that didn’t pass the prior year are reintroduced, and the legislative clock starts from zero. As the House and Senate gavel into the 118th Congress, PLC has gone to work, meeting with each of the more than 80 members
BY KAITLYNN GLOVER Puiblic Lands Council
of the freshman class to share the policy priorities that affect how you make decisions every day as federal lands grazing permittees.
In Congress, our priorities are consistent: legislative direction of use of grazing as a conservation and land management tool and Congressional acknowledgement of the value of grazing; prohibitions on general government overreach, from environmental regulations to species’ habitat management; clear direction on fire mitigation and post fire remediation, and more. 2023 will be filled with discussions about the Farm Bill, where PLC will prioritize robust forest management to stem the cycle of federal mismanagement-catastrophic burn-federal inaction, while protecting the unquestionable access to Forest Service and BLM lands for grazing activities.
While the House and Senate find their footing this month, agency action continues full force. The administration is now in crunch time; in order for them to publish final rules before the general election’s campaign season gets underway, federal agencies need to publish draft rules in spring 2023. This means that draft BLM grazing regulations and the accompanying draft NEPA will be out this spring. In 2022, PLC led livestock industry engagement with BLM to make clear that any grazing reg rewrite must contain a few key things: increased flexibility to use grazing for the benefit of the landscape; a move of land health standards out of the grazing regulation and into larger BLM land management strategy to ensure grazing does not continue to bear the brunt of rangeland damage from recreation, fire, and other surface disturbance; and more meaningful pathways to allow permittees to demonstrate expertise and lead management strategies on the ground.
THE DEFINITIVE VOICE OF FEDERAL LANDS RANCHING
PUBLIC LANDS RANCHERS ARE KEY TO THE VITALITY OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY AND THE HEALTH OF OUR VAST NATURAL LANDSCAPES.
Since 1968, the Public Lands Council has been the only national organization whose sole mission is to represent cattle and sheep ranchers who hold federal grazing permits. Public lands ranchers face unique political, environmental, and economic challenges, and we work with government leaders and private-sector partners to reach creative policy solutions. Public lands ranchers form the backbone of many rural communities and local economies, while leading the way in responsible and innovative stewardship of landscapes across the West. Public lands ranchers also have a positive story to tell, and we shout it from the rooftops.
WE WORK ON
• Antiquities Act • Bureau of Land Management regulations • Carbon Sequestration & Soil Health • Conservation Programs • Endangered Species Act (ESA) • Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) • Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) • Grazing as a forage management tool • Multiple Use Management • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) • Water • Taylor Grazing Act • Wetlands and Riparian Areas • Wild and Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act • Wildfi re Prevention and Recovery • Wildlife Habitat & Migration Corridors
KAITLYNN GLOVER Executive Director kglover@beef.org 202-879-9128 SIGRID JOHANNES Associate Director sjohannes@beef.org 202-879-9122
JUSTYN TEDDER Associate Director of Operations jtedder@beef.org 202-879-9135
1275 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 801 | Washington, D.C. | 20004 | (202) 879-9135
These conversations are critical, which is why PLC maintains a Grazing Regulations Working Group to develop specific language and strategies to hold the BLM accountable to FLPMA, TGA, and resource needs.
The regulatory urgency extends to other areas, as well. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 3 Endangered Species Act rulemakings ahead and countless petitions to list species – many of them frivolous, while the Interior Department will be consumed with the innumerable requests that areas be designated as National Monuments before the end of the administration. Perhaps most pressing for Idaho, however, will be the BLM’s efforts to update their 2012 Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) and Resource Management Plans (RMP) across the west for utility-scale solar projects. The Biden Administration set a goal to permit 25 gigawatts of renewable power on public lands by 2025, and in the last three months, the Department of the Interior has outlined plans for 31 gigawatts of solar alone – all of which would occur on public lands.
For context, Interior Secretary Haaland’s recent announcement of plans for solar development in Arizona required the segregation of more than 4,400 acres – and the projected output would be just 600 megawatt hours. Most estimates range between 4,900 and 5,700 acres required to produce 1 GW for solar projects. This kind of massive conversion of hundreds of thousands of acres means that every permittee on every allotment – as well as ranchers who only utilize private land – have concerns about the conversion of valuable, multiple use grazing land to the single use solar farms. PLC’s policy on renewable energy is clear: PLC supports renewable energy projects – as long as there is no loss of Animal Unit Months (AUMs) and multiple use is maintained. As BLM works through the updates to the PEIS, PLC will be leading industry comments to ensure the agency protects grazing, mitigates environmental damage from any solar facility, and listens to local communities as these projects are proposed. It is not, and will not, be acceptable for these renewable project applications to jump to the head of the NEPA queue, simply because the BLM has a new initiative in mind. Your input is critical. Comments on the solar PEIS are due February 23, so collect your comments and submit them soon.
As we turn the calendar to February and the 118th Congress gets underway, your engagement with Idaho PLC will continue to be the most effective advocacy tool we have. Your stories make all the difference – from Salmon to the Senate, we value your engagement.
Happy New Year from all of us at PLC.
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