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Show Grazing fees to - remain at I current levels til Secretary of the Interior, Cecil D. Andrus, and Secre-pl Secre-pl tary of Agriculture, Bob Berg-f Berg-f land, announced Monday that i 1978 fees for grazing livestock ! 0n certain federal lands will be charged at 1977 rates until a decision is made on pro- posed new fee regulations. fe The two departments have published regulations on fees jrith a 90-day public comment period ending February 21, lg 1978. The proposed regula-tions regula-tions would establish a re-vised re-vised fee schedule based on results of a 1977 fee study. As recommended to the Con-I Con-I gress, proposed fees in 1978 1 would be less than under existing regulations, but high-2 high-2 i a than last year's fees. A decision on the proposed rules will not be made by the ! departments until the public I comment period has ended , I and all comments have been is analyzed. However both de- partments need to issue bill-Jg bill-Jg ings and authorizations for gthe 1978 grazing season, which begins March 1 to 5g prevent delay or inconven-s3 inconven-s3 ience to range users. Each department will follow the usual practices and start sending send-ing out bills for the 1978 grazing season in February. Once the decision is made, a revised billing will be issued indicating any additional payments, pay-ments, refunds, or credits due the livestock operators by the two federal agencies. On those public lands administered ad-ministered by the Bureau of Land Management, the preliminary pre-liminary charges will be the same as charges last year. BLM will bill at the rate of $1.51 per animal unit month with exceptions for five Land Utilization project lands and western Oregon where the 1977 rates varied from $1.58 to $1.88. On the National Forest in the 13 states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wash-ington, and Wyoming, the Forest Service will charge a preliminary fee at the 1977 rates. Under the preliminary billings, Forest Service fees will range from $1.45 to $1.94 per animal unit month, with the fee averaging about $1.60. |
