The below-market federal grazing fee is just one of the many government subsidies that benefit Arizona’s public land ranchers. This list of other government assistance programs that help them is updated as new payments information is acquired, and when new subsidies are created. As you can see, the overall effect of all of these assistance programs is to privatize profits and socialize losses.
Arizona Public Land Ranches That Benefited From Government Assistance
Federal Government Assistance Programs
- USDA-FSA Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)
- USDA-FSA Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP)
- USDA-FSA Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP)
- USDA-NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Arizona Drought Program
- USDA-NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
- Arizona EQIP Recipients 2004-2025
- Arizona Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) Recipients 2004-2017 (WHIP was absorbed by EQIP after 2014.)
- USDA-NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
- 2023 Arizona Strip Wildlife & Livestock Habitat Improvement – Lead Partner: Mule Deer Foundation, $1,219,512
- 2023 Grazing Management & Non-Lethal Predator Risk Mitigation in NM & AZ – Lead Partner: Western Landowners Alliance, $6,665,854
- 2023 Upper Verde River Watershed-Aquifer Protection & Resilient Grassland Conservation Strategy – Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy, $12,439,024
- 2024 Restoring Arizona’s Colorado River Basin Conservation Area – Lead Partner: Arizona Association of Conservation Districts, $24.5 million.
- USDOI Burned Area Rehabilitation (BAR) Program
Arizona State Government Assistance Programs
- Arizona Department of Agriculture Livestock & Crop Conservation Grant Program (LCCGP)
- LCCGP Grant Recipients January-June 2025 (Distributed from program’s residual funds.)
- LCCGP Grant Recipients 2005-2016
- Arizona State Parks Open Space Reserve (OSR) Grant Recipients 2002 (OSR Grants became LCCGP Grants in 2005.)
- Arizona Department of Agriculture Livestock Operator Fire & Flood Assistance Program (LOFFAP)
- Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution Reduction Grants*
- Arizona Department of Forestry & Wildfire Management Post-Wildfire Infrastructure Assistance Program (APWIAP)
- Arizona Game & Fish Department Habitat Partnership Committee (HPC)
- Arizona Game & Fish Department Heritage Fund
- Arizona Game & Fish Department Wildlife Restoration & Enhancement Fund (WHREF) (In 2006 the Legislature passed SB 1441 to create the WHREF with a one-time appropriation of $3.5 million.)
- Arizona Livestock Loss Board (ALLB)*
- Mexican Wolf Depredation & Conflict Avoidance Award Recipients 2025
- Mexican Wolf Depredation & Conflict Avoidance Award Recipients 2024
- Mexican Wolf Depredation & Conflict Avoidance Award Recipients 2023
- Mexican Wolf Depredation Compensation Award Recipients 2017-2022
- Mexican Wolf Depredation Prevention Grant Recipients 2019-2022
- Arizona Natural Resource Conservation Board (NRCB)
- Arizona Sportsmen For Wildlife Conservation (AZSFWC)
- Arizona State Land Department Grazing Leases
- Arizona Water Protection Fund (AWPF)
- Open Range Laws
* These programs are administered by the state, but the funds are provided, conditionally, by the federal government.
Updates
On December 21, 2024, the U.S. Congress passed, and Biden signed, H.R. 10545, the American Relief Act, 2025. This appropriations bill included the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2025, which specified that up to $2 billion was appropriated to provide assistance to producers of livestock,” as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture, “for losses incurred during calendar years 2023 and 2024 due to drought, wildfires, or floods.” It also specified that this assistance may be provided “in the form of block grants to eligible States and territories.”
The federal grazing fee was raised from $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM) to just $1.69 per AUM in 2026.