In late February, we completed detailed analysis and comments on proposed changes to the regulations governing livestock grazing on Bureau of Land Management lands. The proposed changes directly affect nearly 200 million acres of public lands.

The draft environmental impact statement produced by the BLM to justify these changes lacks scientific credibility. To counter this smokescreen, we supplied a detailed review of science applicable to the issues and submitted hundreds of pages of documents to ensure that the BLM has the best available science for its final decision.

Efforts continue toward a settlement of our lawsuit on 1 .5 million acres of BLM land in northern Utah. Positive results have already occurred; our suit has prompted the BLM to prepare a revised land use plan for Rich County. With pygmy rabbits, sage grouse, pronghorn, Bonneville cutthroat trout and other wildlife at stake, we are negotiating to ensure that the best available science is also used in this planning effort, and that current conditions of the land are used to determine livestock management.

We continue to focus on national forest management in the Bear River Range of Idaho and Utah. This mountain range is the only high-elevation forested corridor connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and northern Rockies to the southern Rockies. It is an important migration corridor to maintain species viability and genetic diversity. The Bear River Range is heavily damaged and altered by logging, livestock grazing and fire suppression. In the past year, wolves have been migrating into Utah from Idaho, and this range provides an important route for their re-establishment in Utah. The area remains under assault by U.S. Forest Service projects.

One such project, the Bear Hodges Timber Sale, has logged mature and old-growth fir and spruce trees on 2,000 acres. Two years ago we defeated the project because the Forest Service had not done the required monitoring of its Management Indicator Species of birds and mammals to show their population viability was being protected. Rather than perform this monitoring, the agency in their newly revised Forest Plan for the Wasatch-Cache National Forest simply removed the Management Indicator Species.

In the same area, the Forest Service proposed to renew livestock grazing in the North Rich Allotment covering 27,000 acres across the top of the Bear River Range. The EIS indicated loss of plant communities, soil erosion and various other problems. Based on our own monitoring and the agency's data, we determined that its proposal would result in the consumption of all available forage on the allotment.

We have embarked on a mapping project and capacity analysis (in collaboration with the Wild Utah Project) using historical Forest Service data to show that the allotment is unsuitable for grazing.

John Carter is Utah director of WWP. He lives in Mendon, Utah.