1. United States
  2. Utah
  3. Letter

Revoke the Public Lands Livestock Priority MOU

To: Rep. Owens, Pres. Trump, Rep. Dunnigan, Gov. Cox, Sen. Curtis, Sen. Harper, Sen. Lee

From: A verified voter in West Jordan, UT

May 15

Revoke the March 31, 2026, Memorandum of Understanding that hands livestock producers priority use over 230 million acres of public land. This MOU is an ecological disaster dressed up as heritage protection, and it needs to go — not reformed, not revisited, gone. A 2024 analysis by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility found that more than 56 million acres assessed by BLM already failed to meet land health standards, with livestock identified as the primary cause of failure on at least 37 million of those acres. Grazing destroys riparian areas, pollutes water, compacts soil, kills native predators, and displaces wildlife from elk to prairie dogs. Reopening previously closed allotments and mandating "no net loss" of grazing rights will make every one of those problems worse. Grazing permits are lease agreements — there is no inherent right to graze public land, and those permits can and should be canceled when they cause harm. Support the Voluntary Livestock Permit Retirement Act. It pays ranchers fair market value to voluntarily relinquish their permits and permanently closes those allotments. That is the right path forward. What is not acceptable is subordinating the ecological health of lands that belong to every American to the private profit of a single commercial industry.

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