Article Published: Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Court takes wilderness off-road case


http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,...742448,00.html

By Joey Bunch, Denver Post Environment Writer

A U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday to review a Utah case could put a
chill on the public's ability to force the government to protect
wilderness, according to Colorado environmental leaders.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled last year that
the Bureau of Land Management must protect from damage by off-road
vehicles five areas under consideration for wilderness protections.

The Bush administration appealed on the grounds that the public should
not be able to sue a federal agency over how it performs its
day-to-day role. U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued in his
appeal that the courts should not "entertain challenges to anything
and everything that an agency may do, or fail to do, in the conduct of
its business."


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Jim Angell, a lawyer with the Denver regional office of Earthjustice
and the lead attorney in the case, said Bush is, in effect, telling
the public to butt out, and not just when it comes to off-road
vehicles.

"The administration is not interested in having the public be able to
enforce environmental laws, or any other laws," when it comes to
government agencies, he said, "and this is a way to close the
courthouse doors to the public."

Suzanne Jones, the Denver-based regional director for the Wilderness
Society, said the administration's move is consistent with its
position on wilderness.

In September, the administration issued a new policy ordering the
Bureau of Land Management to give equal consideration to the
commercial value of public land before setting it aside as protected
wilderness.

That decision could open up about 600,000 acres in Colorado for
all-terrain vehicles, oil and gas drilling, grazing and other uses.

Jones said Colorado already has many wilderness areas that have been
scarred by dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles, including public
land near Palisades, Brown's Canyon near Salida and Little Bookcliff
near Grand Junction.

The Blue Ribbon Coalition, a Western pro-land-use group, and other
organizations had also asked the court to reconsider the 10th Circuit
ruling, and will likely support the government's argument.

Paul Turcke, an attorney for the coalition, said the
environmentalists' argument would enable groups to sue the government
if they don't like an agency's decision, regardless of the rationale
behind it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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