The Bureau of Land Management unlawfully awarded livestock grazing rights to environmentalists who were determined to reduce grazing in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, according to a federal lawsuit filed by ranchers and local governments.

Garfield and Kane counties and several local ranchers accuse the BLM of violating the requirements of the Taylor Grazing Act and Interior Department regulations.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court, in Salt Lake City. The complaint stems from a Jan. 26 decision by Interior Department administrative-law judge James H. Heffernan in Salt Lake City, who ruled that Canyonlands Grazing Corp. legally owns three grazing permits in the national monument.

Naming the Interior Department, the BLM and the national monument as defendants, the lawsuit seeks to have the court cancel Canyonlands' three grazing permits in the national monument.

Heffernan upheld the BLM's decisions and validated the permits, saying the BLM's action in allowing Canyonlands to own the rights was "premised upon a rational, factual and legal basis."

Canyonlands is a subsidiary of the preservationist group Grand Canyon Trust. At the time of the ruling, Bill Hedden, a Moab resident who is Canyonlands' director of the trust and president, said grazing could be sharply reduced in some areas of the permits and ended in others, improving "the health of the land." He could not be immediately reached for comment.

The lawsuit claims Canyonlands Grazing Corp. acquired a livestock permit from the BLM "despite owning no cattle at the time of its application" and "manifesting an intention not to utilize the public-lands grazing allotments for livestock grazing."

Presently, Canyonlands is involved in grazing. Besides the Grand Staircase-Escalante area, it has a large grazing area in northern Arizona, Hedden said in January.

However, Canyonlands Grazing Corp.'s Web site says the group is dedicated to the elimination of livestock grazing on public land. "Specifically, its principal business is the purchase, sale and assignment of grazing preferences on the public lands with the sole intention of compelling the BLM to retire the (Clark Bench) allotment from further livestock grazing," the lawsuit asserts.

The plaintiffs claim that "Canyonlands Grazing Corp. eventually acquired a few livestock, utilized its grazing permit for what amounts to a conservation purpose, and effectively mothballed its grazing permits for the past three grazing seasons."

The potential loss of more than 380,000 acres for livestock grazing will reduce the range-fed cattle industry in Kane and Garfield counties "leaving a void in the economy of each county and contributing to a reduction in taxable income" in the counties, the lawsuit says.

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