On Friday, January 27, 2006, the administrative law judge from the BLM's Office of Hearings and Appeals issued a ruling in favor of the Canyonlands Grazing Corporation(CGC) position on the issue of whether it had appropriate "standing" for holding three grazing allotments in the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument. The permits were issued to Canyonlands Grazing Corporation (CGC), a corporation qualified to hold the permits affiliated with Grand Canyon Trust, and included allotments on West Clark Bench, Last Chance and Big Bowns Bench.

Kane and Garfield counties, along with individual ranchers solicited into the proceedings by the counties, had argued that the BLM should never have transferred the permits to CGC because, in their view, CGC lacked the intention to graze and that CGC was not qualified to hold the permits because CGC is not in the livestock business (even though the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that conservation groups can hold permits subject to the same rules as everyone else).  In addition, they alleged our "base" property was insufficient (even though the preceeding permittee had a similar base property) and that we had offered to relinquish our permits, arguing therefore that the permits should have been instantly accepted without condition. The plaintiffs also argued that CGC had not grazed the permits so they should be taken away -- this in spite of the fact that the BLM had told us and other permittees not to graze because of the extreme drought.

The judge, after hearing the arguments, rejected all of them and ruled in the Trust's favor.

Although the BLM completed environmental assessments finding that grazing should be reduced on all these allotments, their ultimate fate will be decided in the monument-wide grazing EIS due this spring.

Please watch our "What's New" website section for further updates.