New administration presents promising opportunity for Western Landowners

For decades, local, state and federal programs have provided the potential for agriculture operations to embrace land stewardship that preserves water, soil and wildlife on public and private lands and meets the financial needs of family farms and ranches.  

Now, as President Donald Trump’s administration gets their feet under them to develop policies that will shape how our federal government interacts with private farmers and ranchers and state and local governments, there are tremendous opportunities to strengthen and streamline how we cooperate.

There is growing consensus on a few issues that could improve to benefit both land managers and landscapes alike. A coalition of landowners known as the Western Landowners Alliance has identified three strategies to create jobs, strengthen rural economies, increase water supplies, help wildlife and provide returns for taxpayer investments.

1. Landowners need to improve the implementation of the Endangered Species Act to advance recovery and delist species more quickly and cost-effectively, providing support and incentives for pro-active, voluntary conservation actions. The Departments of Interior and Agriculture, through administrative action, can and should place a greater emphasis on imperiled species recovery, as opposed to a primary focus of species listing.

Urban and industrial development and public recreation have displaced species from many of their native habitats and the majority of those remaining depend on private land for survival. As a result, ranchers and farmers, who earn their livelihoods from the land, feel the cost of conserving and recovering these species.

By providing support and incentives through voluntary conservation, private landowners can embrace a pro-active land management approach that will provide species habitat-improvement without risk to their land or their bottom-line. This, in turn, saves taxpayers money by reducing the costs and conflicts associated with listing and recovery. 

2. The new administration has an opportunity to strengthen rural economies and create jobs by engaging ranchers and farmers in practices that increase water security, essential to communities and industries throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Water shortages are already jeopardizing everything from breadbasket agricultural production and energy development to outdoor recreation, putting much of the nation’s economy at risk. The method in which land is managed greatly impacts water supplies. With appropriate technical, financial and policy support, farmers and ranchers can play an important role in increasing and securing these water resources. In particular, the USDA should explicitly include restoration of public and private lands as a central theme of its rural economic development strategy while incentivizing restoration-related markets. Further, DOI can establish a stakeholder process in an effort to restore BLM lands by increasing permit flexibility for innovative grazing management, rest, and seasonal use adjustments to meet restoration goals.The new administration should consider improving federal inter-agency cooperation and outreach with rural stakeholders to synchronize the management of land, wildlife and natural resources across ownership and jurisdictions. These efforts can provide guidance and funding to better enable agencies and local communities to engage in place-based, collaborative land use planning and implementation. Engaging private landowners with property adjacent to federal lands has the potential to result in cross boundary efforts. 

3. Finally, we need to support and improve what is already working to keep the West’s working lands and rural economies economically productive and healthy. The Sage Grouse Initiative, Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program and the many place-based collaborative conservation initiatives are examples.