Interior says no to ‘human sustainability’ standard in grazing rules

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 4:17 a.m.

The broadly worded "Sustainable Communities and Human Dimension Standard" would have required BLM to consider economic, social and cultural factors in making decisions about grazing permits on the 13.5 million acres of public land it oversees in New Mexico.

New Mexico included the provision in the proposed standards it submitted to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt last April. Unlike other western states, New Mexico took a "joint lead" with BLM in developing the standards. A 15-member citizens' advisory council began work in late 1995.

Babbitt issued the standards Friday without the provision, which was supported by ranchers but opposed by environmentalists.

Celia Boddington, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department in Washington, D.C., said the provision did not comply with federal rules that govern such guidelines. She said the agency felt the concerns could be addressed in other ways, primarily under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley, who headed the advisory council, said the state will work with the administration of President-elect Bush to overturn Babbitt's decision.

"We will not allow the state's citizens to be ignored in this process, so we will pursue it," he said.

"I'm kind of upset about this thing," he said. "You put forth every effort to compromise and be cooperative, and then have the secretary at his whim take a surgical knife to something ... that he's held for nine months without making a statement on."

Bradley, who also contends the provision is required under the National Environmental Policy Act, said he wasn't going to let Babbitt scuttle it a week before leaving office.

"He wants to ignore over 400 years of New Mexico citizen culture and at the same time ignore the law," Bradley said.

Forest Guardians, a Santa Fe-based group, had objected to the "human sustainability" standard.

"We're pleased that Babbitt had the backbone to stand up to the livestock industry and Walter Bradley and make the health of public lands paramount," John Horning of the group said. "Bradley's office had completely perverted the intent of the rangeland reform effort and put ranchers atop the decision-making paradigm when the whole purpose of the initiative was to restore severely degraded BLM lands."

Supporters contend that when ranchers suffer economic harm it destabilizes families, hurts small businesses in rural communities and cuts into counties' tax bases.

Environmentalists feared the provision would encourage the federal agency to sacrifice rangeland improvements to ranchers' interests - for example, by not reducing cattle in a problem area if the rancher with the grazing permit pleaded economic hardship.

BLM's New Mexico director, Michelle Chavez, pledged to work with different interests in implementing the new standards, which she said would help her agency protect public rangelands.

"It's been a rewarding experience working with representatives of different interests to put these measures in place so grazing can continue while we protect vital land and water resources," she said.

New Mexico was the last western state to adopt grazing management guidelines, which Babbitt ordered six years ago as part of his rangeland reform initiative. Other western states considered some sort of human dimension language, but in the end, only New Mexico inserted it.