The Utah State Legislature recently passed a bill that would change grazing in the state from a permitted activity to a right.
Rep. Carl Albrecht sponsored the livestock grazing amendments bill, designated HB 363 in the 2024 legislative session. The District 70 representative told St. George News that while the bill would not change federal statutes, it would give Utah another tool when negotiating with federal agencies about whether to limit grazing in an area.
Albrecht was prompted to sponsor the bill by the Bureau of Land Management’s release of a new draft Resource Management Plan for the Grandstaircase-Escalante.
“The new monument management plan has alternatives that would devastate the livelihoods of those who farm and ranch,” he said. “We need to take a stand as a state to protect these families from aggressive federal overreach.”
The bill considers federal grazing allotments as valid existing property rights in range management if the person granted an allotment has a valid permit or lease issued by a federal agency authorizing them to graze domestic livestock. They must also graze the land with sustained yield, demonstrate the land is primarily valuable for grazing and begin grazing before a federal agency decides to withdraw the land from use, according to the text.
Read the full story at stgeorgeutah.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.