Environmentalists are appealing a U.S. District Court judge's decision to approve a wilderness deal between Gov. Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton that released nearly 6 million acres of federal land in Utah from temporary wilderness protection.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and nine other regional and national groups filed the appeal Friday before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Approved last month by U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City, the agreement provoked a threat from leaders of the Outdoor Retailers trade show to move the twice-a-year event, which contributes an estimated $24 million to Utah's economy, to another state.

Leavitt subsequently reached a truce with outdoor industry officials by promising to work with them on future wilderness considerations, although he did not undo his settlement with the Bush administration's Interior Department.

In that settlement, reached April 11, Secretary Norton agreed to reverse an order by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt that gave interim wilderness protection to 2.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holdings. She rescinded another Babbitt order that gave similar, but lesser, protections to another 3.3 million acres that environmentalists say are wilderness-worthy.

The settlement removes many of the interim wilderness protections from some sensitive BLM lands inside and outside Utah.

In exchange, Leavitt agreed to drop a lawsuit the state filed in 1996 against the Interior Department that alleged Babbitt overstepped his authority.

Under such interim wilderness protection, motorized vehicles would be strictly managed by federal overseers to prevent the impairment of the lands' "wild qualities," said Jim Angell, a Denver-based lawyer for Earthjustice, a SUWA co-plaintiff.

To bolster its argument, SUWA issued a statement Friday that the BLM has given "preliminary approval" to a proposed late-September off-highway vehicle (OHV) rally in southeastern Utah.

Some of the 16 proposed rally routes, involving 350 OHVs, are on lands affected by the Leavitt-Norton settlement, said Monticello-based SUWA attorney Herb McHarg.

"The BLM is not considering the wilderness character of the area anymore," he said.

BLM recreation planner Scott Berkenfield, also of Monticello, rejected McHarg's argument.

"SUWA is kind of skewing things a bit," Berkenfield said. "We have not given preliminary approval" to the OHV event scheduled for Sept. 25-27.

Berkenfield said the BLM has made a "preliminary finding" that the event would have "no significant impact" on the federal lands it manages.

The agency is taking public comments through July 9. It will not make a decision -- based on public comments and on the environmental assessment -- on whether to allow the event until after that time.

And, Berkenfield said, the agency is following rules laid down long before the Leavitt-Norton agreement.

"Despite the agreement between the secretary and the governor, those routes are legal travel ways. You and 13 of your closest buddies could ride those routes today," said Berkenfield.