Like you, the Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter (SCWC), in its fight to protect Wyoming's public land's and wildlife, regularly faces new challenges. Please click on the titles below to learn what those challenges are, where the SCWC stands, and how you can help:
Wildlife
Public Lands
Energy
Support the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act ("VGPRA")
Click here to Contact your Congressional representatives and request that they become original co-sponsors of the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (“VGPRA”)!
The Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act (“VGPRA”) would provide federal public lands commercial grazing permit holders the option to relinquish their commercial grazing permits in exchange for market-based compensation paid by private parties. The managing federal agency would then be directed to permanently retire the associated commercial grazing allotment from any further commercial livestock grazing activity. (Permit retirement would be capped at 100 permit retirements per year).
For several decades, Congress has recognized that facilitating the privately-funded buy-out of federal public lands commercial grazing permits provides a market-based cooperative tool that is a win-win for public lands and federal public land grazing permittees. Congress has authorized the permanent closure of commercial grazing allotments for grazing permits and grazing leases voluntarily waived within Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve, Capitol Reef National Park, Arches National Park, Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, and Wilderness Areas in the Owyhee Canyonlands and Boulder-White Clouds.
Expanding this authority to all public lands managed by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture in the 16 Western states would enhance conservation efforts and provide additional economic flexibility for commercial livestock grazing permittees on federal public lands.
Livestock grazing on federal public lands can lead to conflicts with other multiple uses such as wildlife habitat enhancement and recreational opportunities.
In many cases, simply removing livestock is the best solution to reduce or resolve these conflicts. The voluntary retirement of commercial grazing permits that would be authorized by the VGPRA would be the most cost-effective and equitable way to address this issue. Current law and regulations either do not allow for the retirement of commercial grazing permits or make the process unnecessarily difficult and uncertain.
Wyoming folks join millions around the world for Global Climate March.
Many, many thanks to Martha Martinez del Rio and Sam Pennington of the Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter (SCWC), the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Laramie, the University of Wyoming's Sustainability Club, and all the great, helpful, committed people who organized and participated in the march.
