View all text of Part 7 [§ 7.1 - § 7.100]
§ 7.63 - Dinosaur National Monument.
(a) Commercial hauling. Ranchers and stockmen owning, leasing or renting private lands, or holding grazing permits issued by the Bureau of Land Management on designated grazing allotments adjacent to the Artesia Entrance Road, Blue Mountain Road, and Deerlodge Park Road, are authorized to use these roads for trucking or hauling ranching and agricultural supplies and materials, including livestock, for use in normal ranching and stock growing operations.
(b) Stock grazing. (1) Privileges for the grazing of domestic livestock based on authorized use of certain areas at the time of approval of the act of September 8, 1960 (74 Stat. 857, Pub. L. 86-729), shall continue in effect or shall be renewed from time to time, except for failure to comply with such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the Superintendent in these regulations and after reasonable notice of default and subject to the following provisions of tenure:
(i) Grazing privileges appurtenant to privately owned lands located within the Monument shall not be withdrawn until title to the lands to which such privileges are appurtenant shall have vested in the United States except for failure to comply with the regulations applicable thereto after reasonable notice of default.
(ii) Grazing privileges appurtenant to privately owned lands located outside the Monument shall not be withdrawn for a period of twenty-five years after September 8, 1960, and thereafter shall continue during the lifetime of the original permittee and his heirs if they were members of his immediate family as described herein except for failure to comply with the regulations applicable thereto after reasonable notice of default.
(iii) Members of the immediate family are those persons who are related to and directly dependent upon a person or persons, living on or conducting grazing operations from lands, as of September 8, 1960, which the National Park Service recognized as base lands appurtenant to grazing privileges in the monument. Such interpretation excludes mature children who, as of that date, were established in their own households and were not directly dependent upon the base lands and appurtenant grazing recognized by the National Park Service.
(iv) If title to base lands lying outside the monument is conveyed, or such base lands are leased to someone other than a member of the immediate family of the permittee as of September 8, 1960, the grazing preference shall be recognized only for a period of twenty-five years from September 8, 1960.
(v) If title to a portion or part of the base land either outside or inside the monument is conveyed or such base lands are leased, the new owner or lessee will take with the land so acquired or leased after September 8, 1960, such proportion of the entire grazing privileges as the grazing capacity in animal unit months of the tract conveyed or leased bears to the original area to which a grazing privilege was appurtenant and recognized. Conveyance or lease of all such base lands will automatically convey all grazing privileges appurtenant thereto.
(vi) Grazing privileges which are appurtenant to base lands located either inside or outside the monument as of September 8, 1960, shall not be conveyed separately therefrom.
(2) Where no reasonable ingress or egress is available to permittees or nonpermittees who must cross monument lands to reach grazing allotments or non-Federal lands within the exterior boundary of the monument or adjacent thereto, the Superintendent will grant, upon request, a temporary nonfee annual permit to herd stock on a designated driveway which shall specify the time to be consumed in each single drive.
(3) After September 8, 1960, no increase in the number of animal unit months will be allowed on Federal lands in the monument.
(4)(i) A permittee whose privileges are appurtenant to base lands either inside or outside the monument may be granted total nonuse on a year to year basis not to exceed three consecutive years. Total nonuse beyond this time may be granted if necessitated for reasons clearly outside the control of the permittee. Total unauthorized nonuse beyond three consecutive years will result in the termination and loss of all grazing privileges.
(ii) Whenever partial or total non-use is desired an application must be made in writing to the Superintendent.
(5) Grazing fees shall be the same as those approved for the Bureau of Land Management and will be adjusted accordingly.
(6) Permittees or nonpermittees who have stock on Federal lands within the monument at any time or place, when or where herding or grazing is unauthorized may be assessed fifty cents per day per cow or horse and ten cents per day per sheep as damages.
(7) The Superintendent may accept a written relinquishment or waiver of any privileges; however, no such relinquishment or waiver will be effective without the written consent of the owner or owners of the base lands.
(8) Permits. Terms and conditions. The issuance and continued effectiveness of all permits will be subject, in addition to mandatory provisions required by Executive Order or law, to the following terms and conditions:
(i) The permittee and his employees shall use all possible care in preventing forest and range fires, and shall assist in the extinguishing of forest and range fires on, or within, the vicinity of the land described in the permit, as well as in the preservation of good order within the boundaries of the Monument.
(ii) The Superintendent may require the permittee before driving livestock to or from the grazing allotment to gather his livestock at a designated time and place for the purpose of counting the same.
(iii) Stock will be allowed to graze only on the allotment designated in the permit.
(iv) The permittee shall file with the Superintendent a copy of his stock brand or other mark.
(v) The permittee shall, upon notice from the Superintendent that the allotment designated in the permit is not ready to be grazed at the beginning of the designated grazing season, place no livestock on the allotment for such a period as may be determined by the Superintendent as necessary to avoid damage to the range. All, or a portion of the livestock shall be removed from the area before the expiration of the designated grazing season if the Superintendent determines further grazing would be detrimental to the range. The number of stock and the grazing period may be adjusted by the Superintendent at any time when such action is deemed necessary for the protection of the range.
(vi) No permit shall be issued or renewed until payment of all fees and other amounts due the National Park Service has been made. Fees for permits are due the National Park Service and must be paid at least 15 days in advance of the grazing period. No permit shall be effective to authorize grazing use thereunder until all fees and other amounts due the National Park Service have been paid. A pro rata adjustment of fees will be made in the event of reduction of grazing privileges granted in the permit, except that not more than 50 percent of the total annual grazing fee will be refunded in the event reduced grazing benefits are taken at the election of the permittee after his stock are on the range.
(vii) No building or other structure shall be erected nor shall physical improvements of any kind be established under the permit except upon plans and specifications approved by the National Park Service. Any such facilities, structures, or buildings may be removed or disposed of to a successor permittee within three months following the termination of the permit; otherwise they shall become the property of the United States without compensation therefor.
(viii) The permittee shall utilize the lands covered by the permit in a manner approved and directed by the Superintendent which will prevent soil erosion thereon and on lands adjoining same.
(ix) The right is reserved to adjust the fees specified in the permit at any time to conform with the fees approved for the Bureau of Land Management, and the permittee shall be furnished a notice of any change of fees.
(x) All livestock are considered as mature animals at 6 months of age and are so counted in determining animal unit months and numbers of animals.
(xi) The Superintendent may prescribe additional terms and conditions to meet individual cases.
(9) The breach of any of the terms or conditions of the permit shall be grounds for termination, suspension, or reduction of grazing privileges.
(10) Appeals from the decision of the Superintendent to the Regional Director, and from the Regional Director to the Director shall be made in accordance with National Park Service Order No. 14, as amended (19 FR 8824) and Regional Director, Order No. 3, as amended (21 FR 1494).
(11) Nothing in these regulations shall be construed as to prevent the enforcement of the provisions of the General Rules and Regulations and the Special Rules and Regulations of the National Park Service or of any other provisions of said rules and regulations applicable to stock grazing.
(c) Snowmobiles. (1) Designated routes which will be open to smowmobile use are approximately 20 miles of the Harpers Corner Road in Colorado and approximately 2 miles of the Cub Creek Road in Utah. The Harpers Corner Road section extends from the Plug Hat Overlook to the Echo Park Road Turnoff. The Cub Creek Road section extends from the Chew Ranch Road, 1 mile north of the Green River Bridge, to the point where the Cub Creek Road leaves the southern boundary of the monument.
(2) On roads designated for snowmobile use, only that portion of the road or parking area intended for other motor vehicle use may be used by snowmobiles. Such roadway is available for snowmobile use only when there is sufficient snow cover and when these roads are closed to all other motor vehicle use by the public.
(3) Snowmobile use outside designated routes is prohibited. The superintendent shall determine the opening and closing dates for use of the designated snowmobile routes each year.