Grazing Fees: BLM's Allocation of Revenues to Montana Appears Accurate.

This report responds to requests to review payments made to the state of Montana from grazing fees collected by the Department of the Interiors Bureau of Land Management BLM on certain federal lands within the state. The concern was that the state and its counties may not be receiving their full share. The correctness of BLMs payments depends primarily on two factors. The two factors are properly classifying grazing lands into one of three categories that determine the specific percentage of receipts to be paid to the state and its counties and ensuring that the system for collecting and distributing the fee receipts produces complete and accurate results. Accordingly examined were the procedures used by BLM to classify federal grazing lands for fee distribution purposes and the system that BLM uses for collecting and distributing fee revenues. We also reviewed BLMs response to several related concerns raised by state and county officials in Montana. -BKA