No. CS/HB 1421
Filed under Environment & Water.
Cattle Grazing on State Land; Requires land managing entities to identify existing grazable lands and consider whether leasing portions of such land to private entities for cattle grazing is appropriate based on certain goals; requires land managing entities to consider certain information when determining such appropriateness; provides requirements for land management plan if such lands are determined to be appropriate for cattle grazing; requires land managing entities to allow such lands to be leased for such purpose under certain conditions; provides cattle grazing leases shall not allow conversion of native wildlife habitat to improved pasture; provides requirement for land management plan if no portions of such land are appropriate for cattle grazing; revises requirements for FWCC program to control invasive plants; provides applicability.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDEvery time a state land management plan is written or updated, the managing entity must identify grazable land and weigh whether leasing it to private cattle operations fits the parcel's ecological, wildlife, and recreation goals.
If a parcel is found suitable, the plan must say so, and the entity must then allow that land to be leased for grazing. It no longer has discretion to identify suitable land and still refuse to lease it.
Any grazing lease is barred from letting native wildlife habitat be converted into improved pasture, and an entity that finds no suitable land anywhere on the parcel must explain that conclusion in writing in the plan.
Florida's invasive-plant-control program for public lands now explicitly recognizes cattle grazing as one of its control methods, alongside research and biological control agents.
AIWhenever a land management plan for state land is written or updated, the managing entity must identify existing grazable land and weigh whether leasing portions of it to private cattle operations fits the parcel's ecological, wildlife, and recreation goals.
AIOnce a parcel is determined appropriate for cattle grazing, the managing entity has no remaining discretion to refuse a lease: it must describe the land in the plan and must allow that land to be leased for grazing.
AIA cattle grazing lease on state land may not permit the lessee to convert native wildlife habitat into improved pasture, protecting the underlying habitat even where grazing itself is allowed.
AIIn deciding whether land can be leased for grazing, the entity must weigh a maximum stocking rate, the grazing term if not continuous, the method of animal containment, and the water and forage available on the land.
AIThe commission's program for controlling invasive exotic plants on public lands now explicitly includes cattle grazing among its recognized control methods, alongside research and biological control agents.