Last progress June 4, 2025 (8 months ago)
Introduced on June 4, 2025 by Ronald Lee Wyden
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Creates a Malheur County grazing management program that gives authorized permittees and lessees targeted operational flexibility while requiring cooperative monitoring and NEPA analysis; establishes a local Malheur C.E.O. Group to propose and fund land and water projects; designates ~1,102,393 acres of federal land in Malheur County as new wilderness areas while allowing certain preexisting uses; and directs the Secretary to take specified parcels into trust for the Burns Paiute Tribe and establish a co-stewardship area, including a $2,000,000 implementation authorization for FY2026.
“Bureau” means the Bureau of Land Management.
“County” means Malheur County, Oregon.
“Federal land” means land in the County that is managed by the Bureau.
“Long-term ecological health”, with respect to an ecosystem, means the ability of the ecosystem’s ecological processes to function so the ecosystem maintains its composition, structure, activity, and resilience over time. This includes an ecologically appropriate diversity of plant and animal communities, habitats, connectivity, and conditions that are sustainable through successional processes.
“Malheur C.E.O. Group” means the group that is established by section 4(b) of the Act.
Directly affected groups:
Ranchers and grazing permittees/lessees in Malheur County: gain new short-term operational flexibility (timing, numbers, locations) under a locally tailored program but must participate in cooperative monitoring and comply with NEPA-analyzed alternatives and notice/consultation rules. Changes could alter daily operations while preserving or tightening long-term ecological constraints.
Burns Paiute Tribe: receives federal trust title to specified parcels and a formal co-stewardship area (Castle Rock), enhancing tribal land base and co-management authority; receives a $2,000,000 implementation authorization for trust/co-stewardship actions in FY2026.
Local communities and project participants: benefit from a locally focused C.E.O. Group able to propose and obtain federal funding/technical assistance for land and water projects, subject to federal approval for projects affecting federal lands.
Federal land managers and agencies (BLM/DOI and others): must implement the grazing program, prepare NEPA analyses of flexible alternatives, manage newly designated wilderness lands under the Wilderness Act, process land-into-trust transfers, and provide technical assistance and oversight for C.E.O. Group projects, imposing administrative and technical workloads.
Conservationists, recreationists, and wildlife/fisheries managers: wilderness designations expand protected areas and may limit some uses but the Act expressly preserves certain pre-existing grazing and wildlife management activities; stakeholders may contest balances struck between conservation and local uses.
Budget/finance: authorizes funding for tribal land actions ($2,000,000 FY2026) and unspecified authorizations for C.E.O. Group projects and program support; actual appropriations and long-term costs will depend on later budget actions.
Practical effects and risks: