Valley County Grazing Fees Increased

The Valley County Commissioners raised their grazing fees at their weekly meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 4.

Commissioner Bruce Peterson said that the county has roughly around 16,000 acres that is grazed, with about 11 different leases with an average of 2,500 AUM (Animal Units per Month).

Peterson explained that the state also raised their grazing fees this year; they went up from $11.41 up to about $14.41. They county raised their fees from $9.35 to $11.50. He said that in the last three years the state and county have been raising their fees to meet closer to the market.

Currently the federal rates are $1.69 AUM. While that gap might seem pretty drastic, private grazing fees can range twice that much and higher.

Mutual Aid

Approved

The commissioners also approved future mutual aid with CMR (Charlie M. Russell Wildlife Refuge). Jeff Bortner, the fire management from the area showed up to the weekly meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 21.

He explained that he was working with Long Run Fire Department and the Glasgow Fire Department to keep the lines of communication open.

He's also talked a little bit about the training requirements needed to work on long sustaining fires on CMR land. Local firefighters would be able to respond, but without the right training requirements they wouldn't be able to continue after CMR arrived. It was also noted that they were working on dispatch notifying CMR when a fire had been reported.