How it works
Ranchers can rent acreage to graze their livestock on public land at a taxpayer-subsidized rate.

How much land we’re talking about
According to BLM.gov as of 2022, the Bureau of Land Management administers almost 18,000 lease permits over 155 million acres of public land for ranchers to graze their livestock on forage.

For how long
Permits are for a 10-year period.

At what cost to ranchers
In 1986, the grazing fee for a cow/calf pair was $1.35 per month (Animal Unit Month, or AMU). As of February 2023, the fee is still $1.35 per AUM.

To put that into perspective, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the buying power of $1.35 in 1986 is the same as the buying power of $3.72 in 2023. While the costs of goods and services has steadily risen for the general public, public lands ranchers has not.

At what cost to taxpayers
Year over year, BLM and USFS (agencies with major public lands ranching programs) generate far less revenue than agency expenditures for its public lands ranching program, resulting in taxpayers footing the bill for the grotesque gap in revenue vs overall budget.

Government accountability or lack thereof
According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, “[As opposed to other agencies and private ranching fees] The formula used to calculate the BLM and Forest Service grazing fee incorporates ranchers' ability to pay; therefore the current purpose of the fee is not primarily to recover the agencies' expenditures or to capture the fair market value of forage.”

What’s an apex predator anyway
An apex predator is a carnivore at the top of the food chain. Apex predators have no natural predators and they play a vital role in the natural balance of the ecosystems where they live

How public lands ranching affects apex predators and ecosystems
Many ranching outfits grazing livestock on public land feel threatened by apex predators like wolves and mountain lions, because these apex predators can and do prey on calves, lambs, and occasionally full-grown livestock, when that livestock grazes the carnivores’ natural habitat on public land. Standing policy for public lands ranching is such that if a rancher feels threatened or thinks a wolf or mountain lion has killed livestock (proof of kill is often not required), that rancher can order the USDA to kill said wolves and mountain lions.

How many apex predators are killed by the USDA to protect livestock grazing on public lands

Hundreds of each on a yearly basis. And oftentimes without proof of these apex predators actually killing livestock.

In 2022, the USDA recorded the intentional killing 204 mountain lions and 213 grey wolves.

Who pays for the USDA to send hunters onto public land to shoot apex predators?
Taxpayers.

Where the wild horses are
Wild horses roam free on public land in 10 western states. They live in their natural habitats on land designated by the BLM as Herd Management Areas (HMAs) and Herd Areas (HAs).

How many wild horses are we talking about?
BLM estimates there are 80,000 wild horses currently roaming free. There are also tens of thousands incarcerated in holding pens, having been rounded up and taken from their native habitats by the BLM and ranching contractors.

What’s the problem?
When the forage becomes sparse on land overgrazed by livestock, public lands ranchers often blame the microscopic ratio of wild horses that share that land with livestock.

The problem with that blame is that wild horses are outnumbered on land they share with domestic livestock by about 30 to 1. And that’s just on shared land. Across 250 millions acres of BLM -managed public land, wild horses are generally only found on 12% of that acres.

What’s this about scapegoating?
The commercial livestock industry is powerful. Historically and presently, many public lands ranchers bully BLM employees into running with the cattlemens’ narrative: That there are too many wild horses on public land. That they’re overpopulated. That they’re the animals destroying the landscape. That they don’t have any natural predators (because mountain lions in the area have been killed by ranchers and the USDA), and there’s no way to control their population except to round them up by helicopter and ship the off to holding facilities.

All of this to protect the pockets of big-money ranching.

What happens to the wild horses?Each year, the BLM stampedes wild horses by the thousands away from their homes, incarcerates, and condemns them to a life in captivity while domestic sheep and cattle obliterate delicate ecosystems.

Who gets paid to “remove” these wild animals? Commercial ranching outfits (yep, they get paid twice. For slaughtering their livestock and for rounding up wild horses).

Who pays for this current removal system?
Taxpayers.

It’s shamefully expensive. And there’s a better way.

The go-to statement from agency and industry is that the Bureau of Land Management is tasked with managing public land for multiple use — including wildlife, extractive industry, livestock industry, and recreation. That is true. But it’s also anecdotal, based on outdated, strained, and now unsustainable federal policy.

Another historical truth is that the BLM was, in fact, formed to reel in a century of environmental damage done by livestock ranching that plundered hundreds of millions of acres across the west. It wasn’t for another two decades that the BLM’s responsibility grew.

But BLM never successfully got public lands ranchers in check.

Year after year, decade after decade, administration after administration, it is the livestock industry that remains in control.