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Western Watersheds Project wins a federal court decision overturning BLM efforts to conceal information about public lands ranchers.
Friends,
Today Chief United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Idaho Candy W. Dale issued an Order in Western Watersheds Project's favor overturning a Bureau of Land Management policy refusing to reveal the corporate and personal identities of public land ranchers who graze public lands for commercial profit even when those details are requested via the Freedom of Information Act.
Western Watersheds Project and our co-plaintiff WildEarth Guardians received excellent representation in this legal victory from Todd Tucci of Advocates for the West's Boise office.
Thank you Todd !
This important victory removes a veil of secrecy hiding many details of ranchers' private use of our public lands.
Western Watersheds Project is delighted to be a part of the Obama Administration's efforts to restore transparency and public accountability to the administration of public lands !
From the News Release :
Conservationists have won a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today over its refusal to disclose the names and addresses of certain grazing permittees on BLM land. Hon. Candy Dale, Chief Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, ruled in favor of Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians, finding that “the public interest in monitoring the BLM’s rangeland program outweighs the minimal privacy interests held by [grazing] permittees."
