Dead Zone

They used to call them the "Taylor Lands," after the 1934 Taylor Act establishing their management: Western grazing lands so unproductive that no one wanted to buy them from the federal government. Ranches leased these lands, sometimes in a checkboard pattern intended to monopolize control over as much land as possible. The values of the leases were incorporated into the property value of the ranches, so ranchers felt they were virtually their own property. The Clinton Administration tried to improve management of these sorely abused lands, but that's now come to a halt.

"This is a whitewash. They took all of our science and reversed it 180 degrees," said Erick Campbell, a former BLM state biologist in Nevada and a 30-year bureau employee who retired this year. He was the author of sections of the report pertaining to the effect on wildlife and threatened and endangered species.

"They rewrote everything," Campbell said in an interview this week. "It's a crime.

"Campbell and the other retired bureau scientist who criticized the rules were among more than a dozen BLM specialists who contributed to the environmental impact statement. Others who worked on the original draft could not be reached or did not return calls seeking comment.

A bureau official acknowledged that changes were made in the analysis and said they were part of a standard editing and review process. Ranchers hailed the regulations as a signal of new openness from the administration.