For immediate release: November 10, 2026

Media contacts:

• Josh Osher, Western Watersheds Project (406)220-2883, josh@westernwatersheds.org
• Chandra Rosenthal, PEER (303) 898-0798, crosenthal@peer.org
• Chris Krupp, WildEarth Guardians (206) 417-6363, ckrupp@wildearthguardians.org 

Forest Service’s Proposed Regulations Entrench Livestock Industry on Public Lands

WASHINGTON – Today’s advance desk of the Federal Register included new grazing regulations for the U.S. Forest Service, affecting approximately 95 million acres of public lands in western states. The regulations, being disingenuously framed as “deregulation,” include proposals to exploit currently ungrazed portions of National Forests, define livestock in such a way as to preclude conservation herds, and codify the grazing fee that results in hundreds of millions of dollars of costs borne by the U.S. taxpayer each year. The proposed changes would make the Forest Service rules consistent with the newly proposed Bureau of Land Management regulations and suffer from the same fundamental flaws through illegal attempts to elevate livestock grazing above all else including healthy fish and wildlife habitat, clean water, and recreation.  

“The Trump Administration is continuing to pander to a tiny special interest group that is mainly represented by wealthy landowners and large corporations who benefit from cheap public lands grazing, while degrading wildlife habitat, polluting watersheds, and killing native predators,” said Josh Osher, public policy director of Western Watersheds Project. “These new regulations will put the destruction of our national forests on overdrive by expanding the scope and scale of commercial grazing at a time when the agency can’t even manage the grazing it already authorizes.”

The proposed regulations drastically expand the current regulatory framework for Forest Service grazing with numerous changes and additions. Below is a short list of the topline changes:

• Creates a “production-oriented” requirement for livestock to qualify for a grazing permit without providing any justification in law or policy.
• Eliminates public engagement opportunities for nearly all grazing management decisions including allowing major permit modifications to be done through a letter to the permittee.
• Codifies the antiquated $1.35 base grazing fee and formula in violation of federal laws that require the fee to be “equitable to the United States” and provide a “fair market value for the use of the public lands.”
• Creates mechanisms for expanding grazing, including to non-permittees, across the entire National Forest system including designated Wilderness, currently ungrazed areas, and previously grazed areas that are recovering from livestock damage through the use of temporary permits that can span up to 5 years.
• Authorizes the issuance of “outcome-based grazing” permits that allow permittees to establish their own benchmarks for forest health.
• Dramatically expands who can qualify for a grazing permit by changing the requirements to own base property or cattle including allowing only the holding of associated water rights for a grazing allotment.

“At a time when the Forest Service is reeling from massive staffing losses, that is reduced in size from almost 10,000 employees in 2025 to just 6,000 today, the Forest Service is giving its remaining officials even greater discretion over who gets to graze livestock on our public lands,” said Chandra Rosenthal, Western Lands and Rocky Mountain Advocate for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). “These new rules set the stage for backroom deals, favoritism, and preferential treatment for politically connected ranchers, while weakening transparency and accountability. With fewer employees to provide oversight, we need less, not more opportunities for cronyism.”

Although these new rules impact 95 million acres of public lands and constitute substantial changes that will have significant environmental impacts, the Forest Service has determined that the proposed regulatory changes do not require environmental planning and analysis by the agency. The Forest Service states that these rules fall under a Categorical Exclusion to the National Environmental Policy Act and will only provide 30 days for the public to comment.

“As with every other regulatory proposal we’ve seen from the Trump administration, the true purpose of this revision is to make life easier for industry. Public lands ranchers want both more opportunity to graze the nation’s forests and less oversight–from either the public or the government,” said Chris Krupp, public lands attorney for WildEarth Guardians. “No surprise: the Forest Service has done their bidding. This proposal to make it even easier to graze the public’s forests illustrates that Americans deserve new laws for public lands—laws that elevate wildlife, clean water and clean air above exploitation.”

“These new grazing regulations are a step backwards. Cattle are not wildlife; they are profit-driven commodities being prioritized over native species, said Liz Carr, Wildlife Program Director, Kettle Range Conservation Group. “Allocating more public land habitat to private livestock interests directly sabotages the survival and restoration of Washington’s wildlife, stalling recovery efforts for endangered gray wolves, Canada lynx, and grizzly bears.”

The current Forest Service grazing program suffers from a tremendous lack of oversight with over 95% of current grazing permits being renewed every ten years absent any environmental review, opportunity for public engagement, or compliance with other federal laws such as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. Additionally, a recent analysis by ProPublica and High Country News found that 10% of Forest Service permittees control over 50% of grazing and that the current fee formula amounts to a 93% discount, on average, compared with the market rate for forage on private land.

The 30-day comment period ends on December 11, 2026, to be submitted online here.

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