On February 2, 2026, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Public Lands Council (PLC)—the public land livestock industry’s national lobbying arm—to “cooperatively monitor” grazing damage on America’s public lands. The same industry responsible for widespread ecological degradation across the West is now formally tasked with helping oversee and document that degradation.

The press release calls this partnership. In reality, it is regulatory capture, signed and sealed.

This agreement did not emerge in a vacuum. It arrives after the Trump administration systematically gutted the federal workforce responsible for independent land health monitoring, NEPA analysis, and enforcement. Scientists were pushed out. Reviews were delayed or abandoned. Oversight collapsed. And instead of rebuilding public capacity, the agency has turned to the very interests driving the damage and handed them the clipboard.