United States Tenth Circuit

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has a mandatory, nondiscretionary duty to manage Wilderness Study Areas (WSA's) in accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act's (FLPMA) nonimpairment requirement, and plaintiffs presented a colorable claim that the BLM's management of the disputed WSA's may be violating the FLPMA's mandate.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/29/2002
• Published 08/29/2002

Judges

• EBEL, Circuit Judge., Before EBEL, McKAY, and LUCERO, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James S. Angell,Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Denver, Colorado (Heidi McIntosh and Stephen H.M. Bloch, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Salt Lake City, UT, with him on the briefs), for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Susan Pacholski, Attorney, Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, (Eileen Sobeck, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Washington, D.C.;  Paul W. Warner, United States Attorney, Stephen Roth and Jeffrey Nelson, Assistant United States Attorneys, District of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT;  and John A. Bryson, Attorney, Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, with her on the brief), for Defendants-Appellees., Paul A. Turcke, Moore, Smith, Buxton, & Turcke, Chartered, Boise, ID, for Intervenors-Appellees., Ralph L. Finlayson, Assistant Attorney General, Stephen G. Boyden, Assistant Attorney General, Mark L. Shurtleff, Attorney General, and Stephen H. Urquhart, Office of the Attorney General, Salt Lake City, Utah;  John W. Andrews, Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, Salt Lake City, Utah;  filed a brief for State, Counties and Trust Land Administration Intervenors-Appellees.