736
Opinion of the Court
with 43 U. S. C. § 315f, and later the land use planning mandated by 43 U. S. C. § 1712 (discussed infra, at 737-738), was authorized to reclassify and withdraw land from grazing altogether and devote it to a more valuable or suitable use. See, e. g., 43 CFR § 160.22 (1938); 1942 Range Code § 6(c)(4); 43 CFR § 161.6(c)(5) (1955); 43 CFR §§ 4111.4-2(f), 4115.2- 1(e)(6) (1964); 43 CFR §§ 4111.4-3(f), 4115.2-1(e)(6) (1977); 43 CFR § 4110.4-2(a) (1994); 43 CFR § 4110.4-2(a) (1998). Third, in the event of range depletion, the Secretary maintained a separate authority, not to take areas of land out of grazing use altogether as above, but to reduce the amount of grazing allowed on that land, by suspending AUMs of grazing privileges "in whole or in part," and "for such time as necessary." 43 CFR § 4115.2-1(e)(5) (1964); see also 43 CFR § 160.30 (1938) (reservation (b)); 1942 Range Code § 6(c)(8); 43 CFR § 161.4(8) (1955); 43 CFR §§ 4111.4-3, 4115.2-1(e)(5) (1977); 43 CFR § 4110.3-2 (1994); 43 CFR § 4110.3-2 (1998).
Indeed, the Department so often reduced individual permit AUM allocations under this last authority that by 1964 the regulations had introduced the notion of "active AUMs," i. e., the AUMs that a permit initially granted minus the AUMs that the department had "suspended" due to diminished range capacity. Thus, three ranchers who had initially received, say, 3,000, 2,000, and 1,000 AUMs respectively, might find that they could use only two-thirds of that number because a 33% reduction in the district's grazing capacity had led the Department to "suspend" one-third of each allocation. The "active/suspended" system assured each rancher, however, that any capacity-related reduction would take place proportionately among permit holders, see 43 CFR § 4111.4- 2(a)(3) (1964), and that the Department would try to restore grazing privileges proportionately should the district's capacity later increase, see § 4111.4-1.
In practice, active grazing on the public range declined dramatically and steadily (from about 18 million to about
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