Cite as: 529 U. S. 728 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
of an applicable land use plan." Ibid. (emphasis added). And therein lies the ranchers' concern.
The ranchers refer us to the administrative history of Taylor Act regulations, much of which we set forth in Part I. In the ranchers' view, history has created expectations in respect to the security of "grazing privileges"; they have relied upon those expectations; and the statute requires the Secretary to "safeguar[d]" that reliance. Supported by various farm credit associations, they argue that defining their privileges in relation to land use plans will undermine that security. They say that the content of land use plans is difficult to predict and easily changed. Fearing that the resulting uncertainty will discourage lenders from taking mortgages on ranches as security for their loans, they conclude that the new regulations threaten the stability, and possibly the economic viability, of their ranches, and thus fail to "safe-guard" the "grazing privileges" that Department regulations previously "recognized and acknowledged." Brief for Petitioners 22-23.
We are not persuaded by the ranchers' argument for three basic reasons. First, the statute qualifies the duty to "safe-guard" by referring directly to the Act's various goals and the Secretary's efforts to implement them. The full subsection says:
"So far as consistent with the purposes and provisions of this subchapter, grazing privileges recognized and acknowledged shall be adequately safeguarded, but the creation of a grazing district or the issuance of a permit pursuant to the provisions of this subchapter shall not create any right, title, interest or estate in or to the lands." 43 U. S. C. § 315b (emphasis added).
The words "so far as consistent with the purposes . . . of this subchapter" and the warning that "issuance of a permit" creates no "right, title, interest or estate" make clear that the ranchers' interest in permit stability cannot be absolute;
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