On Wednesday morning, January 12, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will hear arguments on a case with major implications for the West’s last remaining wild lands, including Colorado’s Vermillion Basin, Utah’s Desolation Canyon, and Wyoming’s Red Desert. The case involves a challenge by conservation groups to the legality of an April 2003 “No More Wilderness” deal between the Interior Department and the state of Utah.

At stake in the case are more than 150 million acres in the West overseen by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Under the secretly-consummated “No More Wilderness” deal, Interior Secretary Gale Norton agreed with then-Utah Governor Michael Leavitt that the BLM could no longer look for or consider adding lands across the West to a list of candidate areas awaiting congressional consideration for permanent protection as wilderness. Every prior administration from Carter through Clinton agreed that such areas could be protected on an interim basis as “wilderness study areas.”

Challenging the deal at Wednesday’s hearing are ten conservation groups represented by Earthjustice and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Since the April 2003 deal was struck, more than 39,000 acres in Colorado and 109,000 acres in Utah of proposed wilderness lands have been leased for oil and gas development.

WHAT: Hearing in “No More Wilderness” deal between Interior Dept. and State of Utah

WHEN: Wednesday, January 12; hearings begin at 9 a.m.

WHERE: U.S. Court of Appeals, 1823 Stout Street, Denver, CO