9/24/1997 241

IBLA UPHOLDS REMOVAL OF CATTLE FROM BLM LAND IN SOUTHEAST UTAH

The Interior Land Board of Appeals has upheld a 1993 order banishing cattle from tributaries of Comb Wash in southeast Utah. The ruling culminates a three year appeal effort by Joseph Feller (Arizona State University Law School), National Wildlife Federation, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. The order effectively reduced grazing by 10 percent (350 cows) on a 72,000 acre BLM grazing allotment leased by the Ute MountainUte Indian tribe because the BLM refused to analyze the impacts of grazing on the canyon ecosystem.