For Immediate Release, February 23, 2026
Contact: Adam Bronstein, Western Watersheds Project, adam@westernwatersheds.org, (541) 299-9907
Conservation Group Protests Plan to Increase Grazing on Steens Mountain
BURNS, Ore.—Today, Western Watersheds Project submitted a formal protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed decision to increase grazing by 96% on four allotments on Steens Mountain. In addition to these increased levels of permitted use, the Bureau intends to issue temporary grazing permits to exploit rare periods of high forage productivity which will lead to compounding ecological harm to soils and wildlife like the greater sage grouse, mule deer, and antelope. The Hammond, Hammond FFR, Hardie Summer and Mud Creek allotments have been recovering from decades of harmful grazing since 2014 when the former permittees, Hammond Ranches, Inc. had their permit revoked following illegal fires the ranchers set on public land.
“The agency’s environmental analysis for this project is written to paper-over the harmful and deleterious effects from livestock grazing in one of the most biologically rich and beloved areas of Oregon’s high desert,” said Adam Bronstein, Oregon director with Western Watersheds Project. “It is clear that ecological recovery and species’ protection of the last 12 years of limited livestock use is taking a back seat to special interests.”
A federal judge previously ruled that grazing cattle on these fragile, fire-scarred lands was likely to cause irreparable harm. Weighing the possibility that grazing might reduce future fire risk, the judge concluded, “Grazing to reduce fire intensity requires a reduction in exotic and invasive grasses, but that would require that first the native bunchgrasses and forbs be overgrazed, which is harmful,” and “sagebrush steppe in the absence of grazing is more fire resistant.” The judge also found that the permitted grazing on these allotments would likely harm sage grouse and redband trout and their habitats.
“Given what the courts have already concluded about the impacts of grazing on these allotments, it’s astounding that the agency is trying to increase livestock use,” said Bronstein. “It’s so clearly contrary to the best interests of anyone but the potential permittees.”
The BLM declined to renew Hammonds Ranches’ grazing permit in 2014 after the permittees were convicted of arson for illegally burning federal lands. President Trump pardoned Dwight and Steven Hammond in 2018 and then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, on his last day as Secretary, ordered the agency to renew Hammond Ranches’ grazing permit, a decision that was later struck down in federal court. In 2021, on the last full day of the first Trump administration, the Bureau granted Hammond Ranches a new grazing permit following an illegally shortened public review process. A month later, conservation groups sued to challenge that decision and it was rescinded the next day. At this time, it is unclear who the proposed new grazing permits would be awarded to.
Western Watersheds Project is a nonprofit environmental conservation group dedicated to protecting and restoring native wildlife and watersheds throughout the American West.
