Cattle producers are praising a recent clarification to the Great American Outdoors Act, they feared could become a land grab.
Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt signed a secretarial order on the Land and Water Conservation Fund that now requires written support from local governments for any land or water acquisitions.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says that the Outdoors Act, signed in August, gave federal agencies free reign to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year in land and water funds for the sole purpose of acquiring new, and they could do it without any oversight from Congress.
The group says that LWCF should be used discreetly to strengthen recreational opportunities and improve public land management.
The group thanked Secretary Bernhardt for signing the order.
Related:
Ranchers criticize Senate for passing the Great American Outdoors Act
Public Land Council hold opposition to Great American Outdoors Act