Brazen Disregard of Livestock Grazing Environmental Science
It is stunning how brazenly the current United States administration consistently ignores science when making environmental policy. The latest controversial selective and biased use of science finds the Bureau of Land Management disregarding government scientists' warnings concerning adverse environmental impacts of excessive cattle grazing on federal lands. Why are the getting away with this sort of thing?
Federal wildlife managers across the West warned the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that new livestock grazing regulations were potentially harmful to wildlife and water quality, adding their voices to those of BLM scientists who said similar criticism was excised by Washington policymakers. Wildlife experts for the Fish and Wildlife Service's three Western regions, along with Environmental Protection Agency officials, expressed concerns in written comments to the BLM last year. The bureau solicited the comments as it was finalizing the new grazing rules, which go into effect this month.
Comments
Perhaps with the opening of the Canadian border to live cattle imports, some of the pressure will be off U.S. public grazing lands. I think with global warming increasing, it is time now more than ever for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to make sure the proper science on these issues is followed through with appropriate action,otherwize public grazing lands in the western U.S. could end up being next to useless.
Posted by: craig hart | July 23, 2005 12:41 PM