The Economic Effects of Three Changes in Public Lands Grazing Policies

Abstract

Linear programming was used to analyze the impact of potential changes in federal policies. The amount of federal grazing used by ranchers was found to be relativley unresponsive to grazing fee increases. However, allotment reductions and adjustments in the allowed season of use for federal grazing had a large impact on the quantity of beef supplied and the net income of the ranches studied. Leased grazing for privately owned domestic livestock has been an important use of public lands throughout Nevada. Availability of federal grazing leases plus relatively low grazing fees led to the development of extensive range resource use by the livestock industry. Mitchell and Garrett (1977) reported range property values closely related to availability of federal grazing permits. Of the 56 ranches surveyed in northeastern Nevada, only four did not use federal lands; and, the average ranch depended upon federal range for about 49% of its annual feed requirements. Recently Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (FS) proposed increasing fees for grazing on public rangelands to the fair market value (FMV) of private leases. Other proposals include elimination of early spring grazing and/or a temporary reduction of grazing to rejuvenate overgrazed range resources. Because of the large amount of federal grazing lands in Nevada, these changes in public lands policies could have a significant effect on Nevada’s livestock industry. The purpose of this paper is to present estimates of the economic impact on a sample of 36 ranches in Elko County of three public land use policy changes: (1) increase in BLM and FS grazing fees; (2) elimination of spring grazing on BLM range; and, (3) reductions in BLM grazing allotments of 20, 40, and 60%.