NATIONAL PARKS TRAVELER • February 17, 2025
It was a great week at the Interior Department: the "Gulf of America" was crowned, grazing fees on public lands remained absurdly low, and U.S. Geological Survey staff helped rescue cold-stunned sea turtles in Florida. Those 2,300 Interior employees — including 1,000 from the National Park Service — whose Valentine's Day greeting were termination notices? Not a mention in Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's "This Week At Interior" email sent Friday to review what Interior was up to last week. The video was removed early Monday. The grazing fee — the amount charged ranchers for allowing their livestock to graze on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands — for 2025 is $1.35 per month per cow-calf combination. That's the lowest it can drop under the law. Grazing fees on private lands are much, much higher.