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Show House approved range improvement The House, in the last days of the current session, passed by voice vote, the conference report on the Public Rangelands Im provement Act, a bill Utah Congressman Gunn McKay called "the most important rangeland legislation leg-islation since 1934." Rep. McKay, who wrote the bill with Rep. Teno Roncalio (D-Wyo.), said the legislation authorizes up to $360 million over the next 20 years to upgrade western ranges, pegs grazing fees to the cost of animal production, does away with environmental impact statements on nonimpact non-impact range improvements improve-ments and allows humane adoption or disposal of the West's overpopulations of wild horses and burros. "The conference committee com-mittee brought back al-" al-" most the same bill we sent off. The only change is tighter control over the adoption of wild horses and burros which I can live with," McKay said. The conference report next goes to the Senate for expected approval tomorrow tomor-row and then to the White House for President Carter's signature. The bill authorizes a maximum $15 million a year through 1986 and $20 million a year thereafter until 1998 to construct and maintain wells, springs, fences, and soil erosion projects and to re-vegetate and manage ranges and watersheds. According to McKay, 83 of the total land area of 11 western states is grazing land and almost half of that is federally controlled. Recent Interior and Agriculture studies reveal that over 75 of it is in bad to fair condition. "Our western rangelands are in sad shape. They desperately need attention atten-tion or we'll lose an invaluable national resource," re-source," said McKay. "Our ranchers have needed need-ed this for a long time and I'm pleased to help them." According to Rep. McKay, the BLM and Forest Service will re-introduce native vegetation to over-grazed lands, and range users under cooperative cooper-ative agreements with the agencies can install and maintain improvements ranging from fence construction to small dams and pipelines. Such non-impact improvements would not require environmental environ-mental impact statements, state-ments, said McKay. McKay said a major feature of the bill is conversion of the current grazing fee schedule from one keyed to the value of private grazing lands to one that reflects the ranchers' cost of beef production and beef prices. McKay's grazing bill would adopt a system advocated by a BLM technical advisory team requiring higher payments pay-ments of ranchers in good market years and lower fees in poor market years. McKay said such a system is the only one that will allow small ranchers to survive market fluctuations. fluctua-tions. Under another provision pro-vision of the bill McKay said the Interior and Agriculture Departments will be given authority to deal with overpopulations of wild horses and burros on western ranges. While continuing the protections established in 1971, it amends them to allow private ownership of the animals after one year's successful adoption or humane disposal of excess horses and burros beyond the carrying capacity of the range. McKay said changes imposed by the conference confer-ence committee strengthened strength-ened limitations on adoptions and instituted a research program to improve data on horse and burro over-populations. McKay said the bill will also assist ranchers in obtaining long term financing finan-cing for their operations and re-emphasize Congress' Con-gress' intention that grazing graz-ing leases should extend for ten years unless sound land management requires a shorter term. McKay claimed the bill is "the most important legislation relating to the Western range since the Taylor-Grazing Act in 1934. Its provisions are vital to improvement of overall range conditions : and assures users that the Federal government wants to work with them to help end decades of range neglect. ' ' |