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Abstract

In the eleven western states, almost half of the land is federally owned and a large percentage of that federal land is used for grazing privately-owned domestic livestock. The Department of the Interior estimates that permitted grazing occurs on thirty-six percent of federal land, but this percentage is much higher in the areas containing more federal rangeland. In 1990, the eleven western states had approximately seventeen million beef cattle and 102,800 beef producers. Roughly eighteen percent of those beef producers had federal grazing permits, but in some states that percentage was much higher. For example, eighty-eight percent of the cattle in Idaho graze for at least part of the year on federal lands.

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