Oregon Public Broadcasting

A federal judge in Seattle is allowing an emergency grazing program to go forward.  A limited number of Western ranchers will get permission to graze or harvest hay from private land held in conservation reserves.  Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

Both cattlemen and environmental groups are happy with the quick resolution to this case.

Ranchers like Kim Hendrickson in southeast Washington get one-time permission to cut hay from conservation reserve land.  Hendrickson says hay has gotten too expensive to buy on the open market.

Kim Hendrickson: “If this hadn’t gone this way, we would probably wind up selling most of our herd this fall, and then either having to start over, which would be way too expensive, or probably just putting our place up for sale.”

A federal judge in Seattle decided it would be unfair to pull the plug on a relief program that some cattle ranchers had been counting on.  But the judge more or less agreed no new applications for emergency grazing or haying would be accepted.

That satisfies National Wildlife Federation attorney Tom France.

Tom France: “In terms of the total percentage of land that we’ve dedicated to conservation, we’ve stopped the bleeding if you will.”

The federal government has paid farmers and ranchers to take about 2.8 million acres of private land out of production and reserve it for wildlife just in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.  Now Tom France expects no more than 3 percent of that to be cut or grazed this fall.