U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer wrote Thursday that he was bound by an appeals court order dismissing the case that prompted his order four years ago.

The 2003 injunction against Clinton's logging ban had become moot after the Bush administration enacted its own so-called roadless rule, which called on states to identify roadless areas they wanted to remain protected via a petition process.

But the state of Wyoming asked Brimmer to revive his order after a federal judge in California reinstated the Clinton rule in a separate lawsuit last fall.

"The matter is not settled, but this is a good sign," said Joro Walker, a Salt Lake City attorney with the nonprofit conservation organization Western Resource Advocates.

She noted the California ruling has been appealed. She also praised the Clinton rules as a well-thought-out acknowledgment of the damage road building does to forests and a recognition of the thousands of people who voiced their support for protecting roadless areas.

"They are intact ecosystems and a source of clean water and provide an excellent source of recreation," she said.

But John Harja, a planner in Gov. Jon Huntsman's Public Lands Policy Coordination office, believes the matter is far from settled.

Though it never formally presented its petition, the state crafted a draft proposal that called for a repeal of the roadless designation in Utah's 4 million acres of roadless forest. The plan - assailed by environmental and sportsmen's groups - was put on the shelf earlier this year because of conflicting legal opinions. Harja believes it will take an appeals court ruling to sort out.

"We've set [the petition] aside, we've waited and we'll wait some more to see what happens," he said.

Clinton's rule, enacted in the final days of his administration after a long public process, placed more than 50 million acres of federal land off-limits for new road construction and other development.

Wyoming sued, and Brimmer ruled in 2003 that the Clinton rule violated federal law. Environmental groups appealed to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Before the appeals court ruled, the Bush administration's rule was enacted. The appeals court found the environmentalists' appeal moot and said it wouldn't be decided.

On Thursday, Brimmer wrote that this decision left him unable to act. He said Wyoming should instead inform the Denver appeals court of the California ruling and ask it to recall its dismissal of the environmentalists' appeal.

Pat Crank, Wyoming attorney general, said Friday his office plans to ask the Denver court to rule on the appeal of Brimmer's original order. Crank said more briefs and arguments shouldn't be necessary.

"If we're forced to go down the road of pursuing a whole new lawsuit, we will be making the same arguments, on the same issue, on the same administrative record, and presumably Judge Brimmer would reach the same decision," Crank said. "The facts and the law have not changed."

Wyoming and Utah officials have said they oppose the Clinton rule because they believe that forest management decisions should be made at the national forest level - not in Washington, D.C.

Jim Angell, managing attorney with Earthjustice in Denver, said Brimmer's new ruling was "dead-on," and vowed a continued fight to uphold the Clinton rule if Wyoming asks the Denver appeals court to act.

Lawson LeGate of the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club pointed out the overwhelming support for the Clinton roadless rules by the American public. The Brimmer decision "is good for the American people, and it's good for the roadless forests," he said. "It's good for Utah's forests, too.''

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* Tribune reporter Judy Fahys and editor Joe Baird contributed to this story.