Principle impacts to livestock grazing would result from actions that limit the area available to livestock grazing and reduce the number of AUMs in the Planning Area. Overall, Alternative B would result in the greatest adverse impacts to livestock grazing, followed by alternatives A and D. Alternative C, under which the BLM would manage resources in the Planning Area to increase commodity production, would result in the greatest beneficial impacts to livestock grazing. Alternative B would place the most restrictions on the production and utilization of forage by livestock and the placement and construction of range improvements. In addition, under Alternative B, the BLM would close areas in elk and bighorn sheep crucial winter range and greater sage-grouse Key Habitat Areas, a large portion of the Planning Area, to livestock grazing.

Alternative C places the fewest restrictions on livestock grazing management and livestock forage production and utilization. Livestock grazing management under alternatives A and D – the alternatives most likely to apply management actions on a case-by-case basis – would generally result in a continuance of current grazing practices. Impacts to livestock grazing from the protection of other resources, such as wildlife and cultural resources, are generally less adverse under Alternative C than under the other alternatives. Proactive management under Alternative C would benefit livestock grazing the most because it focuses on maximizing livestock forage use. Because there would be fewer restrictions on other resource uses such as mineral development, Alternative C would result in the greatest loss in AUMs from surface-disturbing activities, with a short-term loss of 1,170 AUMs per year, followed by alternatives D, A, and B with short-term losses of 669, 650, and 352 AUMs per year, respectively. Over the long term, closing areas to livestock grazing and long-term surface disturbance would result in the greatest loss of active AUMs under Alternative B (163,927 AUMs), followed by Alternative C (4,130 AUMs), Alternative D (1,930 AUMs), and Alternative A (1,670 AUMs).