Wyoming prepared to enter wilderness lawsuit

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead says the state will join a federal lawsuit that Utah filed recently over an Obama administration plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection. Mead said Wednesday he's told Interior Secretary Ken Salazar he has concerns with the so-called "wild lands" policy. Mead says the policy would leave it up to the Interior Department to make wilderness designations on federal lands without congressional oversight or local involvement. The federal policy would restore eligibility for wilderness protection to millions of acres of public lands. It would reverse a Bush-era policy that opened some Western lands to development. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said last month when he filed the lawsuit that he hoped other western states would get involved. AP