Environmentalists’ efforts to rid Utah’s La Sal Mountains of nonnative mountain goats derailed this week after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to allow the state’s controversial translocation program putting goats into fragile alpine areas.
In a decision handed down Tuesday, appellate judges ruled that the Forest Service has no legal authority to prohibit Utah wildlife officials from releasing goats onto state land adjacent to federal land, even if the point of the release was to establish a goat herd in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The ruling struck a blow for states’ prerogative to manage wildlife on federal lands.