Grazing fees for land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service bring in less than one-sixth of the cost of managing that land, resulting in a shortfall of over $100 million each year. Most of this taxpayer money is going to subsidize ~ 2,000 large livestock operators who produce approximately 2-4% of beef in the United States. State and Private landowners charge substantially greater fees for grazing rights than does the federal government. This petition requests that the grazing fees on Federal lands be reviewed and adjusted to more closely reflect their actual value.
Sources:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05869.pdf
http://people.oregonstate.edu/~muirp/wpubland.htm