18 November 2009
Fiscal Costs of Federal Public Lands Livestock Grazing
a report by Wild Earth Guardians
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported the federal government spends at
least $144 million each year managing private livestock grazing on federal public lands, but
collects only $21 million in grazing fees—for a net loss of at least $123 million per year.1
• The GAO reported that ten federal departments and agencies operate grazing programs
on federal public lands: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), USDA-Forest Service,
National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Energy, Bureau of
Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, the Army, Air Force, and Navy.
• The GAO admits its report is incomplete because several agencies, including the
Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Environmental Protection Agency,
which spend millions of dollars mitigating for grazing damage such as non-point source
water pollution, did not provide estimates of their grazing related costs to the GAO.
Other programs that benefit both private and public lands ranchers, such as the
“Livestock Compensation Program,”2 were also not included in the total subsidy to public
lands ranchers.
• Considering the additional direct and indirect costs not included in the GAO report,
economists have estimated that the federal public lands grazing on only BLM and Forest
Service lands may cost as much as $500 million to $1 billion annually.3
• The majority of BLM and Forest Service grazing fees are not deposited to the U.S.
Treasury, but instead are diverted to the "Range Betterment Fund" to pay for fencing,
water developments, and related infrastructure to support continued livestock grazing
(see below).
• No report has ever fully analyzed the incredible environmental costs of livestock
grazing on federal public lands.
