Court Rules BLM Cannot Treat Public Land as Private
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cannot treat public lands as private, according to a recent ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. This decision, which overturned a previous ruling, has significant implications for land management practices, particularly in Wyoming's checkerboard region.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on October 14, 2016, declaring the BLM's 2014 roundup of wild horses in the checkerboard region illegal. The court's decision, released on Monday, clarified that the BLM violated the Wild Horses Act by treating public lands as private due to the logistical challenges of rounding up horses in an area where public and private lands alternate in one-square-mile plots.
Judge Monroe McKay, in a concurring opinion, stated, “Its methodology was to treat public lands as private lands. But, though the BLM’s solution to the problem presented by the checkerboard may seem reasonable, it is not in accordance with the law.”
The case began in 2013 when the Rock Springs Grazing Association sued the BLM, demanding the removal of wild horses from their land in the checkerboard. The BLM agreed, determining that the only way to keep horses off the grazing association land was to also remove them from public plots, given the unfenced nature of the area.
However, horse advocates, including the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign) and the Cloud Foundation, sued the BLM, arguing that while the agency can remove horses from private land, it must undergo an extensive review process before removing them from public land. A U.S. District Court in Wyoming initially sided with the BLM, but the 10th Circuit decision overturned that ruling, agreeing with the horse advocates.
The appeals court ruled that the BLM lacked the authority to treat the entire checkerboard as private, despite the “unique land management situation.” The court emphasized that there is “no basis for BLM to construe the terms ‘privately owned land’ and ‘private lands’ to include the public land sections of the checkerboard.”
The ruling halted the BLM’s checkerboard roundup planned for October 18 and may set a precedent for similar cases across the West. The groups that sued the BLM argued that treating public lands within the checkerboard as private could lead to broader implications for public land management.
The 10th Circuit decision reassures that there is “simply no ambiguity in the terms ‘public lands,’ ... and ‘private lands,’” reinforcing the distinction between the two.