Western Watersheds Project has sued the Bureau of Land Management for violating federal environmental laws and the Challis Resource Management Plan on the Burnt Creek allotment in east-central Idaho.

The allotment is part of the Burnt Creek Wilderness Study Area. WWP contends that the BLM issued livestock grazing permits and made grazing management decisions for the allotment without conducting a sufficient environmental assessment required by federal law.

The lawsuit alleges that the BLM failed to consider alternatives to livestock grazing before issuing permits and took action before environmental reviews were completed. The agency also failed to comply with the Challis Resource Management Plan, adopted in 1999, by allowing livestock turnout on Burnt Creek when range improvements were not functional or properly maintained.

"Challis Resource Area personnel are derelict in their duties and are disregarding their own management plan," said Stew Churchwell, Central Idaho director Western Watersheds Project. "Year after year, this has resulted in the degradation of rare and valuable resources, yet the BLM continues to deny it. Far worse, they have attempted to blame the public for their negligence."

During the 2001 grazing season, the agency determined that livestock grazing on Burnt Creek had violated the terms of the permit by exceeding stubble height standards and by livestock trespass within the Burnt Creek exclosure. WWP, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the BLM have documented the same violations for several years.

Earlier this summer, Churchwell provided the agencies with detailed reports of livestock trespass in the exclosure and poor ecological conditions within the allotment. The reports supplemented findings Churchwell has filed since the 2000 grazing season.

"The BLM's actions are unacceptable and are postponing the resolution of problems," he said.

The Burnt Creek allotment is in the heart of the Salmon River Basin. The area is critical spawning habitat for threatened bull trout.

Burnt Creek Wilderness Study Area, which contains all of the allotment, borders the 116,000-acre Borah Peak Roadless Area, which the U.S. Forest Service has recommended as wilderness.

The BLM's own Idaho Wilderness Study Report states: "The primitive nature of the recommended area adds a spectacular example of sagebrush- and grass-covered hills with pockets of timber giving way to awesome, rugged mountains... Both areas are dominated by the 12,655-foot Borah Peak, the highest point in Idaho."