Two federal district courts have agreed to allow environmental groups to intervene in litigation challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s sweeping public lands rule.
Judge David Barlow of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah issued an order Wednesday allowing the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Wilderness Society and Conservation Lands Foundation to intervene in a June lawsuit by Utah and Wyoming.
That federal lawsuit argues, among other things, that the rule “overhauls BLM’s substantive priorities” under federal law, “revises existing regulations” and “creates brand new land-management tools.”
The Utah-Wyoming case also now involves a separate lawsuit filed in July by a coalition of energy, ranching and farming industry groups in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming. Their complaint focuses on the rule’s mitigation and restoration leasing system.
