Members of the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee heard complaints Wednesday from a pair of eastern Utah sheep ranchers that an increasingly heavy concentrations of wells, roads and pipelines are wreaking havoc with grazing.

But their biggest fear, they said, is that those grazing lands may never be returned once the energy boom ends, turning a situation of temporary losses into something permanent.

"My family have been sheep ranchers for close to 80 years in eastern Utah and western Colorado, and we're seeing changes we've never seen before," said Bill Robinson.

"We understand the importance of the oil and gas industry, but we are being negatively impacted . . .. They're taking 10 to 20 percent of our livelihood and are destroying it. It might not ever be reclaimed."

Robinson and fellow rancher Burt Delambert asked legislators to assess impact fees or redirect severance taxes back to ranchers to help with remediation costs. Or at least become more of a player dealing with the energy companies and the Bureau of Land Management, which controls the vast majority of the grazing lands in the Uinta Basin.

Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, said there was little the Legislature could do, given the BLM's primacy. But Rep. John Mathis, R-Naples, and Sen. Beverly Evans, R-Altamont, said they would organize a working group to respond the rancher's problems.