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Show Lawsuit Filed Against Forest Service And BLM A lawsuit alleging the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management have failed to issue rules and regulations describing describ-ing processes for implementing grazing allotment management plans was filed Sept. 26 in Federal District Court in Albuquerque, N.M. The suit requests that a judge order both agencies to write rules and regulations governing the grazing allotment plan development develop-ment under provisions of the Public Pub-lic Rangelands Improvement Act (PRIA). The PRIA statute requires both the Forest Service and the BLM to develop plans that govern the management man-agement of individual grazing allotments. al-lotments. According to the law, these plans are to be written in "consultation, cooperation and coordination" co-ordination" with grazing permittees, permit-tees, the state (if the the state has land within the allotment in question), ques-tion), and the federal agency. Bud Eppers, a Roswell, N.M., rancher and president of the Federal Fed-eral Lands Legal Foundation which filed the suit in behalf of ranchers using federal lands in livestock production, said the suit is a chal- lenge to the agencies' authority because be-cause it is designed to stop them from "making up the rules as they go along." Eppers said, "Under the current system, grazing allotment management man-agement plans (AMP's) are being developed and implemented all across the west utilizing as many different procedures as there are bureaucrats. In most cases, these procedures are so slanted, time consuming and unreasonable, that both the ranch and the health of the See Lawsuit Filed Page 5A Lawsuit Filed Against Agencies From Page 1 allotment suffers. Section 8 of the PRIA sets forth very specific guidelines for federal land management man-agement agencies to follow when writing allotment management plans. Those statutory procedures are being ignored and abused. The FLLF filed the suit to stop agency harassment of the livestock industry indus-try in AMP processes." "This case specifically asks a federal judge to issue a declaratory judgment against BLM and USFS requiring that rules and regulations regula-tions for developing AMP's be completed as mandated by the law," said Karen Budd, a Cheyenne, Wyo., federal lands law attorney and the lead attorney for the plaintiffs plain-tiffs in the suit. "Additionally, this suit petitions peti-tions the court for an injunction to stop further issuance of allotment management plans until the rules and regulations are completed and in place," the attorney said. The Federal Lands Legal Foundation Foun-dation is a nonprofit organization formed to protect the rural West and the livestock industry through the courts. The FLLF was formed to bring cases exactly like this one. The livestock community has been under un-der false attack from those who would destroy the rural west, local lo-cal communities, and the western way of life. vTh.e organization's mission is to stop these zealots at the own game. The is on our side, and we intend to ensure that such law is followed," Eppers said. "The courts were created to protect individual rights and liberties liber-ties from the uniformed masses, "said Budd. "That is exactly why the foundation came into being and that is what we intend that it ac- complish. This case will start that process. The Federal Lands Legal Foundation Foun-dation (FLLF) was formed in the spring of 1991 under the laws of the state of Nevada. Members of the board of directors for the foundations were chosen from livestock-affiliated people from 14 western states. Met Johnson from Comanche Ranch at New Harmony and Garfield County Commissioner Louise Liston represent rep-resent the state of Utah on the FLLF board. |