Two conservation groups have filed a civil lawsuit to force the federal Bureau of Land Management to remove the fences and water developments installed for cattle in the Iron Mask Acquisition area of the Elkhorn Mountains near Townsend.
The lawsuit, filed this month in U.S. District Court in Billings by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council, also calls for the removal of other range developments and for the BLM to pay the plaintiffs their costs. The lawsuit names John Mehlhoff, the state director for the Montana-Dakotas BLM, and the BLM as defendants.
John Mehlhoff
The plaintiffs say the changes to the area are âarbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretionâ and violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act. They have sued the BLM twice before over issues regarding Iron Mask.
Agriculture
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December 22, 2020
The Native Ecosystems Council and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed a complaint in the District of Montana on Monday claiming that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) should not have authorized livestock grazing, wet meadow enclosures, fence construction and other livestock water modifications on public lands.
The plaintiffs claimed that the BLM breached the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) with its authorizations and analyses relating to livestock water within the Iron Mask Planning Area. The plaintiffs purported that the BLM’s actions authorizing and completing the rangeland projects without an environmental analysis was an illegal decision.