Forest Service and livestock permitee behavior in relation to wildness designation

Abstract

Even though the Wilderness Act of 1964 provided for continuation of livestock grazing after wilderness designation, there has been continued debate about the Forest Service's implementation of this provision and the impact on livestock grazing permittees. The effect of wilderness designation, during the first 20 years after designation, on Forest Service and permittee behavior on Coronado and Tonto National Forests in Arizona was evaluated by (1) comparing changes in permitted AUMs, changes in permit ownership, and proportion of nonuse of permitted AUMs between paired wilderness and nonwilderness grazing allotments, and (2) assessing the importance of the proportion of an allotment in wilderness on these same behavioral parameters. In general, permitted AUMs increased on wilderness allotments but remained the same for nonwilderness allotments. However, there was no difference on Coronado National Forest when forests were analyzed separately. Compared to nonwilderness allotments, wilderness allotments had greater permittee turnover on Coronado National Forest, but there were no differences between wilderness and nonwilderness allotments when forests were combined. The higher the proportion of an allotment in wilderness, the faster the turnover of permit owners, but wilderness proportion did not affect nonuse or changes in permitted AUMs.