Sheep Industry News March 2025

Resource Management Council Hears Policy Updates

CAT URBIGKIT W ith the ASI Annual Convention held the weekend prior to the Trump administration taking office, Kaitlyn Glover of the Public Lands Council told attendees at the Resource Management Council that revok ing or changes to the previous administration’s policies that were detrimental to the livestock industry are expected. Those changes might take a little time as the new administration settles in, but they are coming. Glover said that while there was a lot of chaos at the end of the last Congress, it was the most grazing-friendly Congress that she’d experienced in a long time. While draft changes to the Farm Bill would recognize grazing as a front-line manage ment tool as well as a recognized conservation practice, that bill didn’t make it across the finish line. New membership on the House Committee on Agriculture might open the door for new ideas in this Farm Bill, Glover said, rather than carry over from the previous committee. Glover also noted that actions and policies to benefit public lands livestock producers need to happen in the next two years, because once congressional members are in the mid term, she doesn’t expect much action. She was hopeful that the U.S. House or Representatives will pass the forestry bill introduced by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), and indeed just a few days after the ASI meeting, Westerman’s Fix Our Forests Act passed the House. The bill specifically prescribes utilizing livestock grazing for wildfire risk reduction. Headway was being made with Rep. John Rose’s (R-Tenn.) Black Vulture Relief Act, as it passed out of the House Com mittee on Natural Resources in December. Unfortunately, the bill didn’t receive further action before the last Congress adjourned, Glover reported. The bill would authorize live stock producers and their employees to take black vultures to prevent death, injury or destruction to livestock. While last year was a heavy regulatory year with agencies being flooded with one- or two-sentence comments in opposi tion or support of a proposed agency action, Glover said, PLC remained focused on providing letters with substantial com ments representing the interests of sheep and cattle producers

in Western states. Through these united efforts, the greater sage grouse has been kept off the list of endangered species, the Biden administration threw out its proposed old growth amendment, and efforts aimed at requiring greenhouse gas emissions reporting for livestock have been averted. One of the issues that needs to be watched is the Biden administration’s proposed listing of the monarch butterfly as a threatened species, Glover said. The proposal – currently open for public comment – needs to be carefully structured to al low for agricultural practices while not prompting regulatory actions from other agencies that would target pesticides and herbicides. In other council news, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services continues to provide services to domestic sheep producers in at least 34 states, according to Deputy Administrator Jessica Fantinato. She recently replaced the retiring Janet Bucknall as head of the agency. Much of this agency response includes responding to damage from coyotes, lions, black bears, domestic dogs and black vultures, as well as ravens and red fox. Black vulture depredation damages cattle and sheep, while also posing threats to aviation. Fantinato said Wildlife Ser vices has worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in expediting permits and has optimized the methodology for roost dispersal of these birds. Similarly, producers are experiencing increased attacks from golden eagles and bald eagles, and in response Wildlife Services has hired an avian predator biologist to help address depredations caused by ravens, vultures, eagles and caracaras. Fantinato noted that Wildlife Services has altered its opera tions to reflect the Congressional prohibition on the contin ued use of M-44s. The prohibition on this spring-activated predator control device was part of the integrated animal damage control program in 10 states, but unless Congress passes a bill that removes the restrictive language that was added to the 2024 appropriations bill, the agency may not use the devices. The federal agency continues its work on the development and utilization of non-lethal conflict management for live stock protection and beaver damage management, Fantinato said.

24 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org