OCR Text |
Show Livestock grazing fees scheduled for increase The Interior and Agriculture Departments announced scheduled increases in 1976 fees charged for grazing livestock on public lands administered by Interior's Bureau of Land Management and Agriculture's Forest Service. The fee on public lands administered ad-ministered by the BLM will be increased from the present $1 to $1.51 per animal unit month (AUM). The average fee for grazing cattle on the National Forests in the six western Forest Service regions will be increased from $1.11 to $1.60 per AUM. An AUM is the equivalent of the grazing of a mature cow, five sheep, or one horse for one month. In 19(19, the two Departments began a program of annual raises to maintain comparability between grazing fees for private lands and those for public lands. The objective is to gradually increase fees to fair market value by 19i'.0. Prior to the start of the program, grazing fees were 33 cents for lands managed by BLM and an average of 56 cents for Forest Service managed lands. The 1975 fees were held at 1974 levels in recognition of difficult economic factors and drought conditions facing the western livestock industry. About 25,000 operators now hold permits for grazing an estimated 9 million head of cattle and sheep for a total of about 19 million animal unit months on lands administered by the two agencies. The permits specify the location, duration and number of livestock for each permit holder. In Utah, approximately 2,000 operators in 1974 grazed 132,000 cattle and horses and 477,000 sheep and goats on BLM-administered BLM-administered national resource lands, according to Paul L. Howard, the bureau's state director for Utah, for a total of nearly two millions AUMs. |