BATTLE MOUNTAIN (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has reached an agreement in a year-old grazing dispute with northern Nevada ranchers that allows them to return some cattle to federal rangeland.
BLM officials say the new settlement agreement is in effect now that an administrative law judge has dismissed all pending appeals challenging the contentious closure last year of an allotment near Battle Mountain about 200 miles northeast of Reno.
BLM District Manager Doug Furtado says the deal allows grazing to resume under specific conditions so as to prevent overgrazing on all public lands within the allotment.
Furtado said it's the result of more than three months of collaborative discussions between the BLM, the permit holders and a number of others, including the Idaho-based conservation group Western Watersheds Project.