The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Western Resources Advocates this week petitioned the Attorney General's Office and the state's geographic reference center to provide maps and other information that are connected to the state's so-called RS2477 claims against the Department of Interior. The two groups previously filed for the information under the state's Government and Open Records Act (GRAMA), but were rejected.

Last August, the state threatened to sue the federal government over what it claims to be a dozen rights-of-way in the Swell, located in south central Utah. Two of the routes were closed as part of the creation of the Mexican Mountain Wilderness Study Area in 1980. The others were closed by the Bureau of Land Management in 2003 as part of the agency's San Rafael Swell route designation plan for off-road-vehicle use.

"The public needs to know what the state is basing its claims on," Joro Walker, an attorney representing the two environmental groups, said Wednesday.

"This is all being done in the name of the public, not to mention that it is being done with public money. So it is very much a public concern."

The state has declined to furnish the documents thus far because of what it calls the pending litigation.

"There were numerous bases [for the GRAMA] rejection. But that was probably most central," said Assistant Attorney General Ralph Finlayson.

The environmental groups have criticized the state's claims in the Swell, arguing that the two closures in the Wilderness Study Area are hiking trails, while the others have sustained environmental damage from OHV use.

"The state's lawsuit scheme is particularly remarkable given the long-term public outcry over the damage to these areas and the BLM's well-documented decision to protect these special places," SUWA conservation director Heidi McIntosh said.

Should the two groups be rejected again, they probably will appeal to the State Records Committee, which in the past has ruled in favor of disclosure on public lands issues, Walker said.

jbaird@sltrib.com