Billions of dollars in subsidies prop up a system allowing livestock to graze on publicly owned lands covering an area more than twice the size of California. That investment yields a tiny share of the nation’s meat supply, while 1,000-pound cows trample streams and overgraze sensitive ecosystems, with invasive species and wildfires often following.
The tensions between preservation and profit aren’t new. The program allowing grazing of public lands was formalized back in the 1930s in response to the Dust Bowl’s devastation.
But President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing an aggressively pro-ranching agenda, installing industry advocates in high-ranking positions and calling for more ranching subsidies. His downsizing of the federal workforce has also turned regulation of the industry on its head.
Amid this push, ProPublica and High Country News asked whether public lands grazing — which uses more land in the West than any other industry — is really the best use of this resource.
To investigate the system, we filed more than 100 public records requests and sued the Bureau of Land Management to pry free data revealing what ranchers control the most grazing on these public lands; we interviewed ranchers, conservationists and federal staff; and we toured ranching operations in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Nevada.
At times, we saw small ranchers doing their best to survive on land their family had stewarded for generations. But elsewhere, we witnessed ecological devastation from unchecked grazing, with little being done to address it.
Artist Bios
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Roberto “Bear” Guerra
Roberto (Bear) Guerra is a photographer whose work contemplates our connections to each other and the natural world while addressing contemporary social, cultural and environmental issues. He is also the visuals editor at High Country News — a five-decade-old, nonprofit journalism publication that specializes in thoughtful, nuanced coverage about the western United States.
Organizations
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ProPublica
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account. Find us at propublica.org.
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High Country News
High Country News is the nation’s leading source of news about the West. In award-winning, in-depth reporting, HCN covers the most pressing social, political and ecological issues in our region. From Alaska and the Northern Rockies to the desert Southwest, from the Great Plains to the West Coast, HCN covers 12 Western states and hundreds of Indigenous communities, representing an essential news source for people who care about the West.
Free Range: The High Cost of Public Lands Ranching
Featuring: Roberto “Bear” Guerra
Curated by: Cengiz Yar Allen Tan
Locations
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
This location is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park
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The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
Reporting by Mark Olalde, ProPublica, and Jimmy Tobias for High Country News, photography by Roberto “Bear” Guerra, High Country News. Gabriel Sandoval contributed research. Ken B. Morales contributed data reporting. Design by Allen Tan. Illustrations by Shoshana Gordon. Graphics and mapping by Lucas Waldron. Aerial support provided by LightHawk. Visual editing by Cengiz Yar.
