Livestock Graze on Millions of Acres of Western Public Lands.
Once every 10 years, ranchers must renew the permits that allow their cattle, sheep and other livestock to graze on the West’s public domain. These renewals are the government’s best opportunity to address how those livestock are harming the environment.
The Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service, the federal agencies that manage the majority of public lands, are required by law to review each permit before deciding whether to place additional conditions on it or — in rare cases — to deny its renewal.
But in 2014, Congress mandated that the agencies automatically renew permits for another decade if they are unable to complete the reviews. This exemption has dramatically reduced scrutiny of grazing’s impact on public lands.
In 2013, the BLM approved grazing on 47% of its land open to livestock without an environmental review, a ProPublica and High Country News analysis of agency data showed. (The status of about another 10% of BLM land was unclear that year.) A decade later, the BLM authorized grazing on roughly 75% of its acreage without review, the analysis found.
https://www.propublica.org/article/grazing-environment-public-lands-oversight