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Current Grazing allotments and pastures (sub-allotments)
BLM Layers: Grazing Allotment = GRA_ALLOTMENT_POLY, Pasture = GRA_POLY, Allotment Lines = GRA_ARC
Layers do not display at scales greater than 1:1,000,000. Labels begin to appear at 1:500,000 (allotments) and 1:150,000 (pastures).
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This dataset contains livestock grazing allotment and pasture boundaries with associated attributes describing some basic characteristics of the allotments and pastures. Allotments are made up of pastures. The dataset contains pasture boundary polygons, GRA_POLY, and its coincident line pair, GRA_ARC, which contains boundary definition information. The BLM allotments are tied to the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act which set up grazing districts. All BLM lands should have grazing management identified. However, some districts have considerably more rangeland and larger blocks of BLM parcels and some districts have only scattered parcels and a small or nonexistent grazing program. The ALTPAST attribute, the main attribute for GRA_POLY, accommodates these differences. This theme is associated with the Rangeland Administration System (RAS), a national database application for allotment billing. The relationship of grazing allotments and pastures to fence lines can be confusing. The themes are not identical, but there will be a great deal of coincidence. Pastures (GRA_POLY) are areas (polygons) that keep animals in. Usually, fences (lines) are the physical spatial features that comprise these pasture boundaries, but there may be others like steep terrain or water features. These are defined by attribute DEF_FEATURE of GRA_ARC (line pair to GRA_POLY). Fence lines exist as a separate spatial feature class not described in this standard. While not necessarily identical to the lines in GRA_ARC, there will be a great deal of coincidence and the themes should be maintained together. This dataset also contains proposed pasture polygons, GRA_P_POLY. During planning activities such as Allotment Management Plan (AMP) or Resource Management Plan (RMP) development, it may be necessary to create and analyze different proposals for allotment and pasture changes. The theme will be highly variable and should be archived with other project/plan specific data at the appropriate decision date. Approved pasture changes are incorporated into GRA_POLY and GRA_ARC.
USAGE
This dataset is used for depicting grazing allotments and pastures on maps. Pasture boundaries are dissolved to form allotment boundaries (see Layer Files section). The grazing allotment and pasture dataset is one of the most important datasets to BLM business, and it is also used in most National Environmental Policy Act planning, and other resource analysis. This is a dataset that would be used by most resource specialists, especially those involved in administration of livestock grazing programs. The GRAZSYS attribute can be used to select areas available or not available for livestock grazing. |