WEST — The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released proposed rules in May 2025 that would modify regulations for ranching on 155 million acres of public lands in the West. The proposed rules would increase the number of cattle, sheep, and other livestock grazing on these lands and limit who has a say and when they can object to grazing decisions. The regulations are the first overhaul of public lands grazing rules since 1995.

The proposed rules would eliminate many steps where the public has been able to observe and comment on decisions to issue or renew permits. An unnamed BLM employee stated, "They're clearly trying to reduce involvement of anyone other than ranchers." After a period for public comment, the proposed regulations will return to the agency in mid-July for further review.

In a June news release, the BLM said the action "reflects the Trump administration's priority to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens, promote productive working lands and strengthen local economies." The updated regulations include a requirement that the agency study the ecological impacts of all uses of public lands, including timber harvesting, recreation, mining, and oil drilling. Current rules limit ecological reviews to the livestock industry.

The regulations would allow the BLM to handle low-level violations of grazing regulations more informally, clean up sections of the code that may be at odds with recent court decisions and laws, and offer the agency and ranchers more flexibility in how they manage the range. Tim Canterbury, president of the Public Lands Council, called the update "a massive step forward." He said the existing regulations grew from the "cattle free by '93" movement of the early 1990s, which he described as hostile to ranching and aimed to rid public lands of livestock.

Josh Osher, public policy director of the Western Watersheds Project, said, "We can expect considerably more places where cows and sheep are going to be and more damage." He added, "I think we see big impacts on wildlife."

In March, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the Public Lands Council met with the secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture departments to discuss a memorandum of understanding that included a "Grazing Action Plan" involving updated regulations. Karen Budd-Falen, a high-ranking Interior Department official whose family is in the ranching business, received an ethics waiver to work on grazing policy after rejoining the department. Budd-Falen previously served in the first Trump administration and had been barred from discussing grazing policy due to potential conflicts of interest.