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Show SrQEiEeg boiortag drafts dBo gQEDQral. support Livestock interests and en -vlronm entails ts joined Thursday in support of proposed pro-posed legislation to improve rangelands, restructure grazing fees to reflect the economics of livestock production, pro-duction, change procedures in rangeland management and reduce excess wild horse herds on public lands. Virtually all speakers applauded ap-plauded general objectives of the bill at a public hearing in the Salt Palace, conducted conduct-ed by Rep. Teno Roncalio, chairman of the House subcommittee sub-committee on Indian Affairs and Public Lands. He was flanked by Rep. Gunn McKay, sponsor of the bill, and Rep Dan Marriott. About 130 people attended, attend-ed, representing varied land and livestock interests, environment en-vironment and law from seven se-ven or more western states, including all Intermountain states. The measure HR 10587, as presently drafted, would include provisions to: Have Interior and Agricultural Ag-ricultural departments conduct con-duct and maintain an Inventory Inven-tory of range conditions and trends in conditions. Appropriate an additional addition-al $15 million annually for range improvements, of which at least 80 percent would be spent for rangeland maintenance and improvements. improve-ments. Round up all excess horses and burros, offerpub-lic offerpub-lic adoption for one year, with full ownership thereafter. (Under present law, they can only be adopted, not owned). Those unadopted would be "Disposed of in the most humane way possible." At the Salt Lake hearing Thursday, livestock spokesmen spokes-men appealed for legislation to allow application of funds for range improvement without with-out waiting for impact statements. state-ments. "The ELS and land use plan requirements could keep these new range improvement improve-ment funds in orbit for 20 years before they are put to practical use," said Jack Hull attorney for livestock groups in Elko, Nevada. Nevada, with the largest wildhorse problem, urged granting immediate ownership owner-ship of the animals Jack G. Madsen, Utah Farm Bureau said the deteriorated de-teriorated conditions of federal fed-eral ranges has been overstated, over-stated, and livestock grazing has not damaged ranges as much as has been purported. purport-ed. He said chaining burning, spraying and reseeding are not irreversible activities activi-ties and should be exempt from environmental impact Madsen also saidthat when government reduces or cancels can-cels a grazing permit, through n o fault of the permittee per-mittee compensation should be made. "Entire livestock enterprises enter-prises are based on continued contin-ued uninterrupted use of public pub-lic ranges," he said. |