Barrasso Bill Supports Ranchers and Livestock Grazing Across the West
January 30, 2025
U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has introduced the Resiliency for Ranching and Natural Conservation Health (RANCH) Act. This legislation promotes resilient and healthy rangelands and effective grazing management across the West.
“Livestock grazing plays a critical role for Wyoming’s ranchers to maintain rangeland health and protect their livelihoods,” said Senator Barrasso. “All across America, we depend on our hardworking ranchers. The RANCH Act gives them the support they need to work through natural disasters and efficiently navigate permits and grazing rights. Our bill promotes robust rangeland for livestock, creates habitats for wildlife, and makes life easier for Wyoming’s ranching communities."
Cosponsors of this legislation include U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.).
“As a rancher myself, I know how important prosperous and resilient rangelands are to people throughout the Cowboy State,” said Senator Lummis. “I am proud to help ranchers and rural communities throughout the west sustain healthy public lands by investing in enhanced habitat and land management.”
“As a rancher, I have seen firsthand the immense benefits grazing brings to Idaho’s public lands and our agricultural economy,” said Senator Risch. “The RANCH Act ensures grazing management decisions properly benefit ranchers and rural communities to maintain Idaho’s way of life.”
“Ranching is not only fundamental to our way of life in the West, but also to the economic success of the region,” said Senator Sheehy. “As a rancher myself, I’m proud to join my colleagues on this legislation that will promote healthy public lands, ensure the durability of this vital industry in times of crisis, and replace burdensome regulations with common sense that puts Montana’s hardworking ranching communities first.”
The RANCH Act is supported by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
“The Wyoming Stock Growers Association commends Senator Barrasso for undertaking common sense solutions to challenges that have faced the public land ranching industry in Wyoming and elsewhere in recent years. The RANCH Act will provide badly needed access to emergency pasture in a timely manner when our ranchers are faced with the loss of the use of their normal public land allotments. Far too often, when both the permittee and the rancher agree on the need for these responses, regulatory burdens have kept them from being available.” – Jim Magagna, Executive Vice President of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association
Background:
The RANCH Act will:
- Allow temporary utilization of vacant grazing allotments during extreme events/disasters;
- Allocate funding for rangeland health and resiliency projects and public access agreements to land-locked public lands for co-benefits to hunting and recreation;
- Extend the period of grazing permits/leases for up to 20-years, when certain conditions are met; and
- Provide responsive and nimble management through the use of a categorical exclusion for renewal of certain grazing permits/leases and for certain actions during extreme events/disasters.
The full text of the legislation can be found here.
Source: U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)
