Conservationists say that grazing fees on federal lands remain far below market value, and in its annual review, the Biden administration recently decided they would stay that way.

The federal government charges ranchers $1.35 per month to graze a cow and a calf on public lands.

That’s a fraction of the $24 a month it would cost to graze on private lands.

Conservationists say that attempts at rangeland reform historically have gone nowhere.

Josh Osher, of the Western Watersheds Project, says that policy makers battled over grazing fees decades ago.

At one point, Congress established lower fees, but public lands agencies resisted. Then President Ronald Reagan issued an executive order that kept them low, and they remained low ever since.

"There’s just not been the political will to actually do it, since that time," Osher said. "And that’s why we are where we are today."

Policy makers shifted to reforms that would improve range health, but those also fell by the wayside.

Osher says that because the fees are established by executive order, they could be changed without Congressional oversight, but no president has done so since Reagan issued his order.