Settling for Less: Utah v. Norton

The history of wilderness on Utah's BLM lands has been tumultuous; the debate has shifted from Congress to the BLM and back again as advocates on both sides of the issue wrangle over the management policies. There is no doubt that the Norton-Utah agreement is a major event in this tug-of-war; it fundamentally alters the BLM's authority to manage for wilderness characteristics on the public land, "freezing" the acreage of lands managed as wilderness and precluding the establishment of new WSAs. As sweeping as these substantive changes are, it is appropriate to focus on the procedure used to implement these policy shifts.