Grazing rights in Nevada

The United States purchased land from Mexico in 1848 known as the Mexican Cession (the southwestern region of the U.S.) as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Nevada Territory, which was partitioned in 1861 from the Utah Territory, became a state in 1864. Since then, the US government has continuously owned land in Nevada, including the Bunkerville Allotment.[2][3] Federal rangelands in Nevada have been since 1934 managed principally by either the Bureau of Land Management, its predecessor the United States Grazing Service, or the United States Forest Service. Currently, 56,961,778 acres of land in Nevada are managed by the BLM. Over 18,000 grazing permits and leases are known to exist on BLM managed public lands. Season of use and forage use are stipulated on the permits and leases; grazing control can be targeted.[4][5]

Map of all federally owned land in the United States. The area in yellow represents land managed by the Bureau of Land Management

Laws that apply to management of public land grazing are generally codified in Title 43 of the United States Code and include the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 (TGA), the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978,[1] and the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.

In 1933, Edward T. Taylor, a Representative from Colorado, reintroduced a bill to set up the grazing bureau or service in the Department of Interior to administer range lands.[6] The TGA[lower-alpha 1] regulates grazing on public lands (excluding in Alaska) to improve rangeland conditions. The Grazing Service was merged with the General Land Office in 1946 to form the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).[7]

Prior to the enactment of the TGA, an open-range system existed on public domain land.[8] The TGA was enacted by Congress to prevent overgrazing of rangelands,[9] and authorized the permitted use of lands designated as available for livestock grazing while specifying that grazing permits convey no right, title, or interest to such lands.[10] This definition was unanimously upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 2000.[11] The TGA allows the BLM to increase or decrease the utilization of a grazing area in response to changing ecological conditions, and specifies that permits are subject to periodic review at least every 10 years, with holders having preferential rights to renew "in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior."[10]

An article written by University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Educators Gary McCuin and Steve Foster, highlights the Nevada Open Range Law of 1893, a state statute under which "owners of ... livestock running at large on the ranges or commons” were exempted from state civil liability for trespass, and the open range was defined as “all unenclosed land outside of cities and towns upon which cattle, sheep or other domestic animals by custom, license, lease or permit are grazed”.[12] However, the federal Taylor Grazing Act has further regulated grazing on federal land since 1934, and violators may be subject to federal civil and criminal liability.[10]

The Bureau of Land Management manages about 167 million acres (676,000 km²) of publicly owned rangeland in the United States, with the United States Forest Service managing approximately 95 million acres (380,000 km²) more.[1] Permittees on federal rangelands are required to pay a fee, and the permit cannot exceed ten years but is renewable.

Any US citizen or validly licensed business can apply for a BLM grazing permit or lease. To do so, one must either buy or control private property (known as "base property") that has been legally recognized by the Bureau as having preference for the use of public land grazing privileges, or acquire property that has the capability to serve as base property and then apply to the BLM to transfer the preference for grazing privileges from an existing base property to the acquired property (which would become the new "base property").[1]

The Bundy standoff is a 20-year legal dispute between the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and cattle rancher Cliven Bundy in southeastern Nevada over unpaid grazing fees that eventually developed into an armed confrontation between protesters and law enforcement. The dispute began in 1993, when in protest against changes to grazing rules, Bundy declined to renew his permit for cattle grazing on BLM-administered lands near Bunkerville, Nevada.[2] In 1998, Bundy was prohibited from grazing his cattle on the Bunkerville Allotment by the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in United States v. Bundy.[2] In July 2013, the BLM complaint was supplemented when federal judge Lloyd D. George ordered that Bundy refrain from trespass on federally administered land in the Gold Butte, Nevada, area in Clark County.[16]

On March 27, 2014, 145,604 acres of federal land in Clark County, Nevada were temporarily closed for the "capture, impound, and removal of trespass cattle".[14] A trespass cattle roundup commenced on April 5, an arrest was made on April 6. On April 12, a group of protesters, some of whom were armed[17] advanced on what the BLM described as a "cattle gather."[18] Sheriff Doug Gillespie negotiated with Cliven Bundy and newly confirmed BLM director, Neil Kornze,[19] who elected to release the cattle and de-escalate the situation..[20][21]

• Grazing rights
• Conservation grazing
• List of United States federal environmental statutes