Grazing permit a threat?

A decision upholding an environmental group's purchase of grazing permits in Kane and Garfield counties threatens the Western livestock industry, a Kane County commissioner says.

The director of the environmental group says the decision vindicates its methods of solving grazing problems.

A Utah legislator representing the region — and considered possibly the next director of the state office of the federal Bureau of Land Management — sees a glimmer of victory in that the fight turned environmentalists into ranchers.

The battle revolves around the purchase of three large grazing permits in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by Canyonlands Grazing Corp., an affiliate of the preservationist Grand Canyon Trust. The permits, sold by ranchers in 2000 and 2001, concern the Clark Bench, Last Chance and Big Bowns Bench grazing allotments.

Together, they cover 303,000 acres and rights to graze about 775 cattle. If the BLM approves, conservationists would reduce that amount to about 150 cattle.

The BLM, which manages grazing in the monument, had upheld the purchase of the permits. But ranchers objected, along with Kane and Garfield counties, saying the BLM can't allow the purchase of grazing permits for purposes other than grazing.

The case was heard before an Interior Department administrative law judge in Salt Lake City, James H. Heffeman.

On Thursday, Heffeman upheld the BLM and validated the purchases. He said the BLM proved its decisions were "premised upon a rational, factual and legal basis."

With the decision, cattle grazing can be sharply reduced in some areas and ended in others, said Bill Hedden, the Moab-based executive director of Grand Canyon Trust and president of Canyonlands Grazing Corp.

The object, he said in a telephone interview, is to improve "the health of the land." Where reductions in grazing are supported by the BLM, the groups support it. Meanwhile, he noted, the groups have purchased two large ranches separate from this, where they are investing millions of dollars and grazing cattle.

So, why go to the effort to buy grazing permits and reduce grazing in the monument?

"We did it so BLM would go through an evaluation to determine a proper grazing level on these allotments," Hedden said.

"We're not saying that (reduction) should happen all over the public lands," and these areas were chosen carefully in consultation with the BLM.