grazing rights

Grazing rights is a legal term referring to the right of a user to allow their livestock to feed (graze) in a given area.

United States

The concept of grazing rights in the United States descends directly from the English concept of the commons, a piece of land over which other people — often neighbouring landowners — could exercise one of a number of traditional rights, such as allowing their cattle to graze upon it. Prior to the mid-18th century, grazing rights in the United States were rarely disputed due to the sheer amount of open land free for the taking. However, as the population of the Western United States increased in the mid to late 19th century, range wars often erupted over ranchers' rights to graze their cattle. As more and more settlers fenced their land, free range grazing became a thing of the past. With the introduction and growth of sheep farming, range wars often coalesced into battles between cattle ranchers and sheep ranchers, with the cattlemen alleging that the sheep, like locusts, grazed the land to excess leaving nothing for the cattle.

In 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act formally set out the federal government's powers and policy on grazing rights to federal lands, including the right of the government to auction off grazing rights to federal lands for a fixed period of time. Today, environmentalists have added a new wrinkle to the old debate: they are outbidding ranchers for the grazing rights to federal or state trust land, and then resting the land. This strategy has been used effectively in Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah where arid landscapes, and their fragile ecosystems, are less able to tolerate standardized abusive grazing techniques. [1][2]

See also

• ranchers
• Taylor Grazing Act
• water rights
• village green
• enclosure
• Tragedy of the commons

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