Cite as: 529 U. S. 728 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
lacking prior use. Ibid. And they gave a third preference to stock owners without base property, like the nomadic sheep herder. Ibid. Since lower preference categories divided capacity left over after satisfaction of all higher preference claims, this system, in effect, awarded grazing privileges to owners of land or water. See Foss, supra, at 63 (quoting Grazing Division Director F. R. Carpenter's remarks that grazing privileges are given to ranchers "not as individuals, nor as owners of livestock," but to "build up [the] lands and give them stability and value").
As grazing allocations were determined, the Department would issue a permit measuring grazing privileges in terms of "animal unit months" (AUMs), i. e., the right to obtain the forage needed to sustain one cow (or five sheep) for one month. Permits were valid for up to 10 years and usually renewed, as suggested by the Act. See 43 U. S. C. § 315b; Public Land Law Review Commission, One Third of the Nation's Land 109 (1970). But the conditions placed on permits reflected the leasehold nature of grazing privileges, consistent with the fact that Congress had made the Secretary the landlord of the public range and basically made the grant of grazing privileges discretionary. The grazing regulations in effect from 1938 to the present day made clear that the Department retained the power to modify, fail to renew, or cancel a permit or lease for various reasons.
First, the Secretary could cancel permits if, for example, the permit holder persistently overgrazed the public lands, lost control of the base property, failed to use the permit, or failed to comply with the Range Code. See, e. g., 43 CFR §§ 160.26(a)-(f) (1938); Department of Interior, Federal Range Code §§ 6(c)(6), (7), (10) (1942) (hereinafter 1942 Range Code); 43 CFR §§ 161.6(c)(6)-(7), (10)-(12) (1955); 43 CFR §§ 4115.2-1(d), (e)(7)-(11) (1964); 43 CFR §§ 4115.2- 1(d) (e)(7)-(11) (1977); 43 CFR § 4170.1-2 (1994); 43 CFR § 4170.1-2 (1998). Second, the Secretary, consistent first
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