Forest Service Signs Agreement on Rangeland Monitoring

The U.S. Forest Service is supporting public lands ranchers’ need for enhanced rangeland monitoring, according to an agreement  signed July 25 at a Dallas meeting of NCBA’s Federal Lands Committee. The meeting was held in conjunction with the annual Summer Conference.  

Members of the Public Lands Council and NCBA’s Federal Lands Committee formalized a cooperative rangeland monitoring program that will provide for more accurate information to be collected regarding the condition of forage and rangelands within National Forest Service grazing allotments. 

 “The memorandum of understanding gives us a powerful and useful new tool to do the monitoring work that everyone agrees needs to be done,” says Mark Rey, USDA’s Undersecretary for Natural Resources and the Environment.  Rey is the political appointee with oversight of the Forest Service.   

The document is signed by U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and Public Lands Council President and Montana cattle producer K.L Bliss.  

“We’re formalizing a relationship that already exists in several parts of the country where USFS representatives and permittees work together to plan, collect and interpret data on the condition of lands used for livestock grazing,” says Jeff Eisenberg, PLC executive director and NCBA director of federal lands.  “This will help stabilize our industry by providing better information for the Forest Service to use in making allotment management decisions.”

 The understanding culminates several years of discussion and the development of a position paper within the industry about the need for more monitoring of rangeland. The PLC and NCBA are currently working with the Bureau of Land Management on a similar program.