Hahn

The Idaho Watersheds Project and the Committee for Idaho’s High Desert appeal from the district court’s denial of their motion for a preliminary injunction limiting grazing in the Succor Creek and State Line allotments of the Owyhee Resource Area in Idaho. Our review is limited to whether the district court abused its discretion in denying the preliminary injunction or based its decision on an erroneous legal standard. See Does 1-5 v. Chandler, 83 F.3d 1150, 1152 (9th Cir.1996). (issues of law underlying preliminary injunction rulings are reviewed de novo). We reverse and remand.

The appellants’ complaint claimed in part that conditions in the Owyhee Resource Area violated the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM”) 1995 “fundamentals of rangeland health” regulations (“FRH regulations”), 43 C.F.R. § 4180 et seq., see Public Lands Council v. Babbitt, 167 F.3d 1287, 1308 (10th Cir.1999), cert. granted, - U.S. -, 120 S.Ct. 320 , - L.Ed.2d - (1999), and that in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706 (1), the BLM had unreasonably delayed in complying with the FRH regulations, see Independence Mining Co. v. Babbitt, 105 F.3d 502, 507 (9th Cir.1997). The appellants…