Josh Osher, public policy director for the Western Watersheds Project, is part of a chorus of conservationists advocating for the federal fee to be much higher. He said the low fee allows ranchers to graze more cattle, which causes environmental damage.
“A lot of times [cattle] preferentially select those plants that are more rare, that are important for pollinators,” Osher said. “But they’re also displacing wildlife, and it’s almost always the predators and carnivores that pay the price if they get into conflict with livestock.”
Osher pointed to a 2022 study by researchers at Oregon State University that shows grazing cattle trample and destroy wetlands and spread flammable weeds like cheatgrass. The researchers also found that grazing on public lands in the West emits 12.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year – the same as the emissions from nearly 2.3 million passenger vehicles, the number of such cars in Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming combined.
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