Grazing Fees Announced

The federal grazing fee for 2010 will be $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM) for public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and $1.35 per head month (HM) for lands managed by the Forest Service (FS). The grazing fee for 2010 is the same as it was in 2009.

An AUM or HM - treated as equivalent measures for fee purposes - is the occupancy and use of public lands by one cow and her calf, one horse or five sheep or goats for a month. The newly calculated grazing fee, determined by a congressional formula and effective on March 1, applies to nearly 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the BLM and more than 8,000 permits administered by the FS.

The $1.35 per AUM/HM grazing fee applies to 16 Western states on public lands administered by the BLM and the FS. The states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The FS applies different grazing fees to national grasslands and to lands under its management in the Eastern and Midwestern states and parts of Texas.

The BLM manages more land - 253 million surface acres - than any other federal agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The FS manages 193 million acres of federal lands in 44 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.