Lawyers ask judge to split sweeping grazing suit

A federal lawyer is asking a judge to break apart a sweeping lawsuit that accuses federal land mangers of putting grazing and energy ahead of preserving sage grouse on millions of acres in six western states. The lawsuit, filed last year in U.S. District Court in Boise, challenges 16 separate land use plans developed by the Bureau of Land Management in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and California. The Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project claims the BLM violated federal environmental laws when the agency failed to properly weigh the impacts grazing and natural gas drilling have on sage grouse and its diminishing habitat. Thursday's hearing in Boise focused on procedure rather than the merits of the case. Lawyers for the government, cattlemen and energy developers argue the case should be split and argued separately in the six different states...AP