Backlog Grows For Rangelands Awaiting Environmental Health Checkups

The conflicts around grazing on public lands were shoved into the spotlight during the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon. The Bureau of Land Management allows livestock grazing on more than 20-thousand square miles in Oregon and Washington - an area 4-times the size of the Willamette Valley. Ranchers have been frustrated by environmental regulations they see as a threat to their livelihoods. But the fact is, many of those regulations only exist on paper -- they’re not fully enforced by federal land managers. Jes Burns of EarthFix reports from Oregon’s Harney County.