2006 Federal Grazing Fee announced
$1.56 per AUM
February 2, 2006
The Federal grazing fee for Western public lands managed by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management will be $1.56 per animal unit month (AUM) in 2006, down from $1.79 in 2005. An AUM is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month.
The newly adjusted fee, determined by a congressional formula and effective on March 1, applies to more than 8,000 permits administered by the Forest Service and nearly 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the BLM.
The formula used for calculating the grazing fee was established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act. Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per AUM, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year’s level.
The $1.56 per AUM grazing fee applies to 16 Western states on public lands administered by the Forest Service and BLM. The states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The Forest Service applies different grazing fees to national grasslands and to lands under its management in the Eastern and Midwestern states and parts of Texas. The national grassland fee will be $1.73 per AUM, down from $1.90 in 2005, and will also take effect March 1. The fee for the Eastern and Midwestern states and parts of Texas will be out later this month.
|
