Interior Order 3454 Directs Agencies to Find More Grazing Land and Clear Permit Backlog for Ranchers
ANALYSIS · October 27, 2026
Slug: burgum-secretarial-order-3454-grazing-ranchers
Package note: This Analysis covers Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum’s Secretary’s Order No. 3454, “Supporting America’s Ranchers through Resilient Rangelands,” signed October 27, 2026, and the Interior Department press release announcing it. The order implements Executive Order 14425, “Supporting America’s Ranchers” (September 4, 2026; 91 FR 57765). It is an internal management order: it sets deadlines for reports and plans, creates no enforceable rights, defers to existing laws and regulations, and is “subject to the availability of appropriations.” It does not itself open specific lands or change grazing fees.
Primary sources
- Department of the Interior press release (October 27, 2026): https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-burgum-signs-order-support-american-ranchers-expand-grazing-and-cut-red-0
- Secretary’s Order No. 3454 (signed PDF): https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/document_secretarys_orders/so-3454-supporting-americas-ranchers-through-resilient-rangeland-2026-10-27-signed_508.pdf
- Executive Order 14425, Supporting America’s Ranchers: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/supporting-americas-ranchers/
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed an order on October 27, 2026, directing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation and other Interior agencies to identify more land for livestock grazing, renew grazing permits for full 10-year terms, and produce a plan to eliminate BLM’s permit-renewal backlog. The order creates a Department-wide Rangeland Health Initiative led by BLM and calls for a public map of lands available for grazing. It cites a national cattle herd at a 75-year low, a finding first stated in Executive Order 14425.
Core Tension
The press release says the order “takes aggressive steps to increase domestic meat production and lower costs for consumers.” The order’s own text is mostly a schedule of reviews, reports and plans, with deadlines from 5 to 180 days; actual new grazing would come later through permits and, in some cases, land-use or regulatory changes. It sets a policy goal of “no net loss” of Animal Unit Months (AUMs, the standard measure of grazing capacity) and says actions should lower meat prices “to the maximum extent possible,” but it contains no price or herd-size targets. It also says it “shall be implemented subject to the availability of appropriations” and that existing laws and regulations control where they conflict.
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