Last week, the USDA Forest Service announced in a press release its 2022 grazing fees on the national forests and grasslands in the western states.
Grazing fees are the amount that livestock owners must pay for their animals to graze on the land.
“The western states fee applies to approximately 6,000 permits administered by the Forest Service in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the national grasslands in Texas," the USDA press release said. "Permit holders and should contact their local Forest Service office for more information.”
The USDA’s Forest Service announced that western federal grazing fees will be $1.35 per head month for 2022, the same as in 2021. A head month is a unit for a month’s use of the range by a cow/calf pair, by five goats or sheep, or by a single bull, steer, heifer, horse, burro, or mule.
Grazing fees have been controversial in the past, but concerns have been somewhat assuaged by the fact that grazing fees haven't risen much in recent years, and in fact, were decreased during the prior administration under President Trump.
"The formula used for calculating the grazing fee was established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act and has remained in use under a 1986 presidential Executive Order," the Bureau of Land Management said on its website. "Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per animal unit month / head month, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year’s level."
