How was the BLM inventory appealed?
Utah conservationists filed a series of appeals with the Interior Board of Land Appeals. One such appeal was 2,000 pages long, containing 300 photographs. It covered 925,000 acres on 29 roadless areas. In 1983 the IBLA ruled that the BLM decisions had been in error on 90 percent of the lands under appeal. But only 30 days were allowed to file the appeal. Conservationists resources were stretched to the breaking point and many eligible areas were never appealed. Upon reconsideration, the BLM reinstated as WSAs fewer than half of the areas that had been successfully appealed. Oversight hearings conducted by then Representative John Seiberling in 1984 and 1985 documented these inventory deficiencies but the Department of Interior refused to consider additional WSAs.
