Overhaul of public lands grazing regulations seeks to cut public involvement Skip to content Ars Technica home Sections Forum Subscribe Search AI Biz & IT Cars Culture Gaming Health Policy Science Security Space Tech Feature Reviews AI Biz & IT Cars Culture Gaming Health Policy Science Security Space Tech Forum Subscribe Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Pin to story Theme HyperLight Day & Night Dark System Search Sign In Sign in dialog... Sign in free range Overhaul of public lands grazing regulations seeks to cut public involvement For the first time since 1995, the Bureau of Land Management is rewriting its grazing regulations. Mark Olalde, ProPublica, and Jimmy Tobias for High Country News – Jul 11, 2026 7:11 am | 71 Cattle graze on US Forest Service land in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana. Credit: Photo by William Campbell/Corbis via Getty Images Cattle graze on US Forest Service land in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana. Credit: Photo by William Campbell/Corbis via Getty Images Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav The federal government is rewriting its rules governing ranching on public lands to increase the number of cattle, sheep, and other livestock grazing on 155 million acres in the West, an area twice the size of New Mexico. Public lands grazing is overseen by a nearly century-old system that heavily subsidizes some of the wealthiest Americans while doing little to address its harms to the environment, ProPublica and High Country News found last year.
Even though rangeland management experts say overgrazing has degraded public lands, the new rules being drafted by the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management—the first overhaul since 1995—would instead expand the practice. The proposed rules would also ratchet back public participation in the agency’s decisions to allow grazing on federal public lands. The BLM’s proposed updates would strictly limit who has a say and when they can object, eliminating many steps where the public has been able to observe and comment on decisions to issue or renew permits. “They’re clearly trying to reduce involvement of anyone other than ranchers,” said one BLM employee who works on rangeland management.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/overhaul-of-public-lands-grazing-regulations-seeks-to-cut-public-involvement/
Even though rangeland management experts say overgrazing has degraded public lands, the new rules being drafted by the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management—the first overhaul since 1995—would instead expand the practice. The proposed rules would also ratchet back public participation in the agency’s decisions to allow grazing on federal public lands. The BLM’s proposed updates would strictly limit who has a say and when they can object, eliminating many steps where the public has been able to observe and comment on decisions to issue or renew permits. “They’re clearly trying to reduce involvement of anyone other than ranchers,” said one BLM employee who works on rangeland management.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/overhaul-of-public-lands-grazing-regulations-seeks-to-cut-public-involvement/