Litigious Landscapes

Cattle grazing on public land can be a contentious issue that impacts those in rural communities. These disputes often affect the quantity of cattle ranchers are permitted to graze on public land. As livestock are the primary revenue generator for rural ranchers, any change in permitted livestock directly impacts the financial stability of ranchers and communities in the American West. Through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of the Interior, we obtained nearly 1800 documents detailing livestock grazing changes and the disputes around them on Bureau of Land Management grazing allotments. We carefully extracted key details from these cases to build an interactive website that allows users to explore patterns in grazing permits. Our research examines how legal disputes around livestock affect social fragmentation and social cohesion in rural areas. Litigious Landscapes aims to enhance our understanding of how litigation affects the social cohesion of rural communities.