The decade-long legal battle over President Clinton's decision to turn 1.7 million acres of southern Utah's Garfield and Kane counties into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument appears to have finally come to an end.

On July 24 the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver tossed the remaining case brought by the Mountain States Legal Foundation on behalf of Don Wood, the owner Southwest Stone, an alabaster mining company that mined  on land that became the monument.

The court ruled that Mountain States Legal Foundation had no standing to file suit. Barring an appeal to the Supreme Court, the case is now over.

To view the court ruling please click here. (pdf file)