Two coalitions representing 10 conservation and Native American groups have petitioned a federal court to join the Bureau of Land Management in its defense of a lawsuit by three states challenging the agency’s new public lands rule.
The first motion to intervene was filed Thursday by seven groups — including the Center for Biological Diversity, Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians — in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. It includes a memorandum of support outlining the legal case to intervene, and the reasons why the groups support the rule, which elevates conservation on par with other uses of BLM lands, such as energy development and livestock grazing.
The seven groups, in their motion, contend that the lawsuit by North Dakota, Idaho and Montana challenging the rule, if successful, would cause them “to lose significant ground in advancing their missions to conserve public lands and secure the associated public health, cultural resource, air and water quality, wildlife, recreation, and climate safeguards their members depend on.”
But it also states that their interests won’t be adequately represented by the federal government because BLM is responsible for “balancing all authorized uses of federal public lands for the public as a whole.”
