Show An Increase in Grazing Fees The bureau of land management of the department of the interior has announced increases ses in grazing fees on public lands in the west Effective M Ma May 1 for this years year's feeding season the charge will wili be 8 cents a month for horses and cattle instead of 5 c cents and 16 cents a month for sheep and goats instead of oft i. i cent While cattle and sheep growers of the intermountain west cannot be expected to welcome any increase in their costs of operation it will be e difficult for them to object seriously to this increase in fees for two reasons In the first place livestock prices have gone up a good deal dealIn dealin dealin in recent years It is only fair that if the value of animals fattened on on the public lands is greater the worth of grazing privileges should be gre greater ter Secondly it makes sense to increase grazing fees sufficiently BO so that the administration of public lands for grazing purposes should hould be more nearly self supporting If the privilege of grazing livestock on public lands is valuable valuable and and the demand for such privileges indicates that it must be then be-then then it is only right that those who benefit by such use should pay the cost of administration tion rather than the gen general ral taxpaying public On the other hand if the users of the public grazing lands pay pay a fair price e for the privilege they have aright alright to expect in return fair and efficient service in their interest Of course that service ce must take into consideration both their immediate and their long range long range interests It would be of no real benefit to the livestock industry to ruin the rangelands by a reckless policy of overgrazing the the public lands today That would only mean eventual eventual eventual even even- ruination of the industry not to speak of great damage which would would- be done through destruction of vital watershed cover |