use of federal lands subject to increased scrutiny

April 13, 2009 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

The federal government owns a vast portion of this country's western lands.  And yet, despite the importance of the reasonable use of these lands for agricultural and domestic energy purposes, the trend is to let the lands sit idle for fear of litigious environmental groups.  Western Watersheds Project v. Salazar, in which WWP has challenged the government's resource management plans, is just one example of this type of litigation.  Yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle contained an article on the case.  WWP's complaint is available on its website, here.