Taylor Grazing Act (U.S. 1934)

The taylor grazing act of 1934 authorized the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to establish and regulate grazing districts on vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved public domain lands deemed “chiefly valuable for grazing,” to issue grazing permits for up to 10 years, and to collect grazing fees. Federal regulation of grazing first began on Forest Reserves in the early 1900s, but it took many years for legislation regulating grazing on the remaining public domain lands to pass. Although cattle ranchers were generally in favor of legislation that would bring order and stability to what was essentially an unregulated grazing commons, sheepherders, settlers, and farmers opposed it. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior battled over which one of them ...