New York Times columnist John Tierney, who is vacationing in the West, wrote on July 26 a favorable article about the voluntary transfer of grazing rights. (Registration may be required to read this.) An environmental group, Grand Canyon Trust, has purchased grazing rights from a rancher in southern Utah, with the goal of retiring them. Such trade epitomizes the free market approach to resolving conflicts over whether livestock or elk should graze on federal grasslands in the West. But the Interior Department, under the political influence of ranchers, has refused to allow the retirement of grazing rights this way.

For an assessment of the Bush administration policy on grazing rights, see Terry Anderson's entry in the PERC (Property and Environment Research Center) Report Card.