BY MARY O'BRIEN
With most eyes on the massive fossil fuel and roads-everywhere features of the Public Lands Initiative (“PLI”) of Representatives Bishop and Chaffetz, there’s a doozy that takes up only a small space in the 65-page proposal but sprawls throughout all the areas they propose for protection: locked-in livestock numbers.
Rep. Bishop opines that the rules his bill lays down for livestock grazing within areas proposed for protective designations are standard wilderness language. Not. In all PLI-proposed wilderness, national conservation areas and special management areas, Reps. Bishop and Chaffetz propose to halt management of livestock by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). How?