Sixth District Judge David Mower has ordered Kane and Garfield counties to stop using a state defense fund to cover those costs in a federal lawsuit.

"The counties are not receiving any clear present benefit for the money they are paying on behalf of the private individuals," Mower wrote last week in issuing an injunction. "In addition, any benefit they may receive in the future is speculative and uncertain because the outcome of the federal litigation is unknown and uncertain."

Bill Hedden, executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust, praised Mower's ruling, arguing it benefits taxpayers and levels the playing field in the federal case.

"We have hundreds of thousands of grazing rights at risk," Hedden said this week. "We had to pay our own lawyers . . . while the counties were getting money from the state. It just wasn't fair."

The two counties had been footing the legal bills - estimated earlier this year at more than $174,000 - for the ranchers, who filed suit in U.S. District Court for Utah in hopes of snagging grazing permits that had been sold to the trust.

Kane and Garfield argued that the trust-owned permits cost the counties tax revenue, diminished their agricultural heritage and increased fire dangers in the area from reduced grazing.

The trust then sued in 6th District Court, seeking to prevent the counties from continuing to pay the ranchers' legal expenses.

mhavnes@sltrib.com