Editor’s note: This is the 11th story in a 13-part series exploring public lands grazing in the West.

When helping public lands ranchers and agencies work through strife and division, Larry Bentley purposely avoids bringing up the past.

Sucking bad blood to the surface, he says, typically leads to more contention. Instead, Bentley tries to move the parties toward an amicable, solution-oriented partnership involving civil meetings in both the office and field coupled with cooperative rangeland monitoring.

GROUNDWORK: Monitoring of uplands and riparian areas is a critical component of public lands grazing in the West, including the Tongue District of the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming.

But bringing up a little past will help explain why struggles between permittees and land management agencies—including the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management—are still very much alive across the West.

It will also bring perspective to the three-decades-old grazing feud on the Tongue District of the Bighorn National Forest in north-central Wyoming, which Western Farmer-Stockman is using as a public lands grazing case study.

“When you consider the past, there is reason for conflict,” says Bentley, a long-time agricultural producer who has been contracted by the Wyoming Department of Agriculture to help with range monitoring and mediation in several hotspots, including the Tongue District.

A trip in time

In the 1950s and ’60s, permittees generally ran cattle and sheep on public lands as if those lands were their own, says Bentley, who notes: “Many permittees were good stewards, but some weren’t.”

He says that improper grazing management led to resource damage on many allotments across the West, and the public began to notice.

“Public lands started getting more attention in the 1970s, and some of that attention was going against what the ranchers were used to,” Bentley says.

When these ranchers started facing cuts in stocking rates and seasons-of-use, the fight was on. One battleground was the Tongue District, where ranchers have called in many outsiders for help. Among them is the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, which has poured tremendous resources into the controversy, including sending staff members and contract employees, including Bentley, to assist with range monitoring and mediation.

By the time Bentley came into the picture several years ago, there was already conflict, and lots of it.

Bentley says the state ag department made it clear upfront to both the permittees and USFS that it was firmly committed to a no-net-loss of animal unit months on state and federal lands in Wyoming. At the same time, however, range conditions stemming from grazing had to meet guidelines and be able to stand up in court.

Testing and AUMs

Five years of intensive monitoring of uplands and riparian areas by Bentley and others, including University of Wyoming Extension, revealed that the mountainous Tongue District couldn’t support the historic stocking rate of one AUM per acre (this is among the very highest of stocking rates on USFS lands across the West, which average one AUM per 10 acres).

Instead, Bentley and others determined that it would take at least three acres per AUM on the Tongue, meaning drastic cuts in livestock grazing were in order.

This wasn’t a surprise to some ranchers, who told Western Farmer-Stockman that some areas of the Tongue District and entire Bighorn National Forest had been overgrazed for decades. Other permittees, however, were furious with the USFS and, despite mediation, remain on the fight today.

“Ranchers, like many people, have a hard time with change. By nature, we are hard-headed and like things to stay the same. But sometimes, it’s necessary to change,” says Bentley, who agrees that change was necessary on the Tongue District to protect the future of grazing.

“I think we did a good job, and I think what we did was fair,” he says. “Some of the ranchers recognize that, but some of them weren’t happy. Some of them will probably never be happy with what was decided, but I can defend what we did in court and so can the Forest Service.”

Improper grazing can't be ignored - >>>

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Improper grazing management can’t be ignored

Numerous factors are leading to an increasing number of disputes over public lands grazing in the West, and ranchers and agencies can both do their part to lessen the strife by working together instead of fighting, according to mediation experts.

Lucy Pauley, Wyoming Department of Agriculture mediation coordinator notes there are a range of reasons for a spike in conflicts including more users wanting a piece of public lands, frequent droughts, planning processes that take many years, resource damage caused by a range of factors and close scrutiny by environmental groups and others.

“The agencies can easily control livestock numbers, but they can’t easily restrict things like hikers, campers, ATV users, fishermen and hunters,” Pauley says. “That’s a common issue in Wyoming and across the West.”

Pauley, however, doesn’t blame cuts in livestock stocking rates and seasons-of-use on that factor alone, because she realizes that improper grazing management has been a problem on some allotments in Wyoming and elsewhere. Because of this, she says, it’s imperative that all permittees work closely with agencies to develop plans to benefit the resource.

Mediators at work

The Wyoming Department of Agriculture, often working with other neutral third parties, has been involved in several mediations in the state between permittees and agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

One of the hotbeds involved the Green Mountain Grazing Allotment, which covers more than 500,000 acres of BLM lands in south-central Wyoming.

When BLM announced cattle and sheep numbers were going to be cut by nearly 50% because guidelines weren’t being met, some ranchers tried to work with the agency, but others became furious, maintaining that they were already doing things to improve the range.

“Green Mountain had been contentious for several years when we became involved,” says Larry Bentley, one of several neutral-party outsiders who started working with BLM and permittees who grazed on the west side of the allotment.

“Attitudes have changed, and everyone is moving forward in a better way,” says Bentley, who notes that permittees on the east side have since agreed to mediation, which started in summer 2014.

That’s just one of several cases the department is involved.

In early 2014, ranchers holding permits to graze livestock on a national forest in Wyoming chose to go through mediation instead of going to court after the USFS announced that stocking rates were going to be reduced to what it believed were sustainable numbers.

Tongue District controversy

“The parties were able to talk and come up with an agreement that both sides were satisfied with,” says Pauley, who declined to discuss details except that it didn’t involve the Tongue District of the Bighorn National Forest, which has been embroiled in controversy for three decades.

The Wyoming Department of Agriculture, University of Wyoming Extension, Wyoming’s three congressional delegates, agricultural organizations, and others have all been involved in the Tongue District feud for years.

“It’s critical that people learn how to cooperatively work together,” Bentley says. “There have been success stories in Wyoming, but some of them aren’t.”

Bentley and other outsiders agree that the Tongue District case has been a mixed bag when it comes to success. Some of the permittees recognized that steps needed to be taken to improve riparian areas and uplands, Bentley says, “But others were very disappointed that they didn’t get what they wanted, and they are still angry.”

Mediation resources available...and They Said it - >>>

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Mediation resources available

USDA's Farm Service Agency and some state agencies across the West have agricultural and natural resource mediation programs to assist ranchers and farmers resolve disputes in a way that is voluntary and confidential.

Mediation also can help participants save money and time by not going the court route, says Wyoming Department of Agriculture mediation coordinator Lucy Pauley.

The Wyoming department can assist producers and land managers with several issues including federal lands’ grazing disagreements, ag credit issues, USDA adverse decisions, clashes with neighbors, family estate planning arguments, easement and access issues and ag business altercations.

Do an Internet search for “ag mediation” and USDA, along with your state to learn more about federal and state programs that might help you.

They Said It

“Ranchers and the Forest Service have both contributed to this dispute. The Forest Service is holding all the aces so ranchers become very guarded in what they say. Everything that is said in a meeting with the Forest Service is recorded and becomes part of the public record, which does not encourage good, open discussion. Then the Forest Service starts feeling that ranchers aren’t being open and honest with them. Communication breaks down on both sides, and suddenly you have a problem.”

Dana Kerns, Livestock grazing permittee ,Ranchester, Wyo.

“I believe that the majority of permittees felt something needed to be done to ensure the sustainability of grazing on the district, and they have taken necessary steps to achieve that, but some permittees haven’t. They will tell you they have, though some have not been able to consistently meet allowable-use guideline. However, we are still seeing some improvement in the riparian conditions in those pastures where changes were made.”

David Beard, Rangeland management specialist, Tongue District, Bighorn National Forest, Sheridan, Wyo.