An easy alternative is just eliminate all grazing or other rights on government land.
An easy alternative to what? For whom is it easy?
Grazing and riparian rights are a property interest.
To take them without compensation raises constitutional problems.
John--so what are the alternatives for the allegedly harmed rancher? If they do the gun/militia/occupation gig they will end up in jail. AKA Bundy.
Curiously, the Cliven Bundy episode indicates an efficacy in the similar tactic in stopping the BLM.
IF (big IF) a rancher has a grievance, ...
Emphasis added. Does the parethetical mean that you believe it to be implausible that a rancher could have a grievance?
IF (big IF) a rancher has a grievance, then he needs to document the actions by the agency that wronged him, including values of grazing lost, number of cattle that had to be sold and value, etc. The courts are where we deal with grievances in this nation.
I agree as a matter of policy that society is served by resolving disputes in courts or by the dispute resolution mechanisms that exist alongside them.
Let's recognise that being poorly treated by a federal agency doesn't transform an individual into a legal secretary, and that how information is collected and what gets documented can have determinative weight by the time one finds his matter in trial.
If my life is all about scratching a living out of the pasture by getting cattle to water then pasture daily so I can get the cattle to market and hope to break even that year and I find a BLM fence keeping my cattle from my water, both of the following are possible:
1. I may not foresee how to document my harm so that it can be presented to a court, and
2. I may not have previously retained counsel to talk me through the process as my stock stand unwatered.
It is puzzling why "returning the lands" to states or private ownership is such a big deal. I know personally several ranchers(in Colorado) that have grazing permits on BLM or USFS lands. They are charged extremely reasonable fees, and the agency in charge tries to manage the lands in a manner that is beneficial to the lands as well as the ranchers.
That sounds very much like what kilimanjaro described as the way the process should work. That experience may not be ubiquitous.