Western Watersheds Project welcomes the filing in October of federal grazing buyout legislation (HR 3324 and HR 3337) by U.S. congressmen Raul Grijalva (DAriz.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and several co-sponsors.

The first bill would authorize a voluntary buyout of federal public lands grazing permits with an initial authorization of $100 million in funding. The second bill is a similar pilot grazing permit buyout proposal (without a set funding figure) specifically for Arizona, where numerous public lands ranchers fully support the bill.

The bills are a manifestation of an important change in the way our public lands are perceived. The idea that 270 million acres of western public lands have values that are greater than ranching is not new. But these bills are an acknowledgement that it is time to directly address values of healthy wildlife habitat, clean water and recreational opportunities which have been greatly diminished by livestock production.

The old idea of multiple use of public lands is a failure because it has not been able to reflect changes in public values about the use of public lands. When the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act was signed into law in 1960 by President Eisenhower, public understanding of the national importance of these lands was barely perceptible.

Forty-three years later, there is little question that our public lands deserve better than the ad hoc management failures of the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service.

The two bills support this change in values in a generous way that eases the transition from commodity use of public lands to conservation and restoration. Because both bills specify that the buyout is voluntary, they leave participation up to individual ranchers.

In the past, the remarkably draconian regulations governing the administration of public lands has required that lands be grazed by livestock even if individual ranchers wished not to do so. Rep. Shays and Rep. Grijalva's support for the voluntary buyout ensures that decisions will be made at the level of the individual and not by agency bureaucrats or political ideologues in Washington. It is a thoughtful and appropriate response to what has been an increasingly intractable problem.

The two bills also provide an opportunity for Western Watersheds Project and our partner organizations in the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign to show beleaguered public lands ranchers that there is a financially generous way for them to resolve the growing list of environmental and economic stresses which are pushing public lands ranching toward extinction with little in the way of an economic future.

Western Watersheds Project looks forward to the passage of both bills and encourages members and supporters to contact their congressional representatives and ask for their support for both measures.

Jon Marvel is executive director of WWP. He lives in Hailey, Idaho.