President Obama's 2013 budget would increase fees to graze livestock on Interior Department lands by roughly 75 percent, a proposal that has angered ranching advocates and some Western lawmakers.

The plan drew fire from Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House National Parks, Forest and Public Lands Subcommittee, at a hearing this morning on Interior's fiscal 2013 budget (Greenwire, Feb. 15).

The Bureau of Land Management's $1.1 billion budget proposes language for a three-year pilot project that would allow the agency to recover some of the costs of issuing grazing permits and leases on its lands.

"BLM would charge a fee of $1 per animal unit month, which would be collected along with current grazing fees," the budget request says. "The fee would allow BLM to address pending applications for grazing permit renewals."

The agency would later promulgate regulations to continue the administrative fee as a cost recovery mechanism after the pilot project expires, it said.

Dustin Van Liew, executive director of the Public Lands Council and director of federal lands for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said the new fee would mean a 75 percent increase on the cost of public lands ranching, on top of the costs for range improvements, fencing and compliance with other regulations.

"It's fairly safe to say that this would force some number of ranchers out of business," Van Liew said.

But the proposal will likely be welcomed by opponents of ranching on public lands who have long argued that the current $1.35 fee to graze a cow and her calf on public lands for a month is several times cheaper than what it would cost to graze livestock on private lands.

Critics complain that the fee creates a perverse incentive to graze on public lands, where the animals can trample native vegetation, accelerate erosion and pollute streams. Environmentalists lashed out when the administration late last month announced that the grazing fee would remain unchanged in 2012 (Greenwire, Feb. 1).

But administration officials will also have to answer to lawmakers who fear the fee will hurt constituents and threaten rural traditions.

"Let's be serious ... it's a tax as much as it's a 'fee' as they call it," said Melissa Subbotin, a spokeswoman for Bishop. "It appears they feel they can achieve this through administrative fiat regardless."

But the administration can point to a 2005 Government Accountability Office report that found federal agencies in 2004 spent at least $144 million to administer grazing programs but took in $21 million in fee revenue.

The current $1.35 fee applies to more than 8,000 permits on Forest Service lands and nearly 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by BLM.

The formula for yearly grazing fees -- established by Congress in 1978 and extended indefinitely by the Reagan administration -- takes into account current private grazing land lease rates, beef cattle prices and the cost of livestock production, according to the Forest Service.