The Grazers' Edge

Bush Administration Wants to Roll Back Grazing Rules

You'd think Bush administration officials might want to spend their Friday afternoons planning happy hours or trying to sneak out of the office early, like normal people, but no: They like to spend their Friday afternoons quietly rolling back environmental protections, hoping that the news will get lost over the weekend. This past Friday was no exception: Interior Department officials proposed rule changes that enviros say would let ranchers return to overgrazing and other unsustainable grazing practices on millions of acres of federal land in the Western U.S. Among other things, the proposed rules would limit the public's ability to participate in the process of determining where and how grazing is conducted. Citizens who don't like the sound of that have 60 days to make public comments on the proposal.