Kane and Garfield earlier appealed a January decision by an administrative law judge upholding the Grand Canyon Trust's monument grazing rights to the Interior Department's Land Board of Appeals. Now, they have also filed a lawsuit in district court challenging the decision.

"We're going to be in district court at some point anyway. We might as well get this argument before a judge and let the court decide," said Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw.

Among the plaintiffs in the suit is Garfield County Commissioner Dell Lefevre and Trevor D. Stewart, the son-in-law of Rep. Mike Noel, a Kanab Republican.

The Grand Canyon Trust spent $1.5 million to purchase about 350,000 acres worth of monument grazing permits between 1999 and 2001 in what were deemed environmentally sensitive areas.

The group originally intended to retire the permits, but it began purchasing and grazing a minimal number of cattle when the Bureau of Land Management declared the permits at least temporarily open, pending the completion of a land-use plan.

The counties have challenged the trust's qualification to hold grazing permits and claimed the environmental group had offered to relinquish the permits, which would have allowed other applicants to file for them.

Administrative law judge James Heffnernan rejected all of the counties' claims. Grand Canyon Trust director Bill Hedden believes the district court will do the same.

"It's exactly the same claims that were in the administrative appeal, the same big conspiracy between the Grand Canyon Trust and the BLM, which is laughable," said Hedden.

The trust is currently grazing cattle on two of its three allotments. Hedden calls the third allotment "impossible to graze" at the present time.

The case has cost Kane and Garfield Counties $100,000, all of which was provided by the Utah Legislature. Habbeshaw says the administrative appeal is expected to cost around $5,000 and the new suit between $10,000 and $12,000.

jbaird@sltrib.com

Reporter Robert Gehrke contributed to this story.