STATE, FEDERAL and PUBLIC LANDS

STATE/FEDERAL PERMIT BUYOUT - 2005

BE IT RESOLVED: Montana Cattlemen's Association opposes any federal or state grazing allotment buyout program for non-livestock purposes.

STATE PARTICIPATION IN GRAZING PERMIT REVIEWS - 2005

WHEREAS: Many of our members depend on the public land grazing for their livelihoods; and

WHEREAS: Public land grazing permits are periodically reviewed for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance by federal agencies; and

WHEREAS: Federal decision makers are required by NEPA to give great weight to the opinion of local governments on matters within their jurisdiction; and

WHEREAS: The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks is often the only state agency who participates in NEPA reviews of grazing permits, language is often inserted into the grazing permits that effectively reduces the forage available to the permit recipient, in favor of forage for wildlife.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That MCA requests the state Department of Agriculture to participate in NEPA reviews of grazing permits to insure that the permit recipient’s rights are equally represented by the state.  

NATIONAL MONUMENTS/LAND REFORM - 2006

Under the guise of the Antiquities Act, enormous tracts of land are being set aside tying up huge natural resource potential. 

WHEREAS major movements are underway in federal and state governments and primarily the environmental and conservation communities to acquire permitted allotments allocated to private lands, also referred to as DEPENDENT COMMENSURATE PROPERTY, which is specifically explained in the Taylor Grazing Act; and 

WHEREAS once acquired, the use and management of those lands and resources will be restricted, through ownership, control or covenant to non-economic purposes; and 

WHEREAS such change in land use and ownership of the scale now underway represents a major land reform movement in Montana and United States; and 

WHEREAS MCA is an organization that stands for and defends the basic concepts of fee holder ownership and private enterprise, 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that MCA objects to major scale use of the Antiquities Act in the acquisition of private property in the name of conservation or public use.