BOISE - A federal agency has revoked a conservation group's control over federal land, saying it lied about plans to graze cattle there.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said in March it's canceled three grazing allotments to the Hailey-based Western Watershed Project. The group has 30 days to appeal.

Western Watersheds manages the 400-acre Greenfire Preserve near Challis with the long-term plan of returning the area to its natural state and protecting endangered animals and plants. It has grazing rights over nearly 22,000 acres of additional federal land.

BLM-Challis Field Manager David Rosenkrance said in a March 26 letter the group told the BLM they intended to buy livestock when they actually didn't.

He pointed to comments from group leaders on their Web site, in their newsletter and in newspaper articles as evidence they never intended to graze cattle on the property.

He cited a recent article that quotes Western Watersheds executive director Jon Marvel saying "not having livestock on these landscapes is hugely beneficial for wildlife and fisheries."

Western Watersheds "provided BLM with baffling, contradictory, and apparently false statements," Rosenkrance wrote.

Marvel said Monday he's confident the group's appeal will be successful. He declined to comment on details of the BLM letter, saying the group's appeal will spell out their dismay.

"We disagree with the entire decision and we'll appeal every part of it," he said.

Idaho ranchers, however, welcomed the decision, saying Western Watersheds should be forthright about how it plans to use the land.

"He didn't do what he said he was going to do," Wally Butler, a range specialist for the Idaho Farm Bureau, told the Idaho State Journal.

The group has a successful track record in winning environmental cases across the Western states.

Its attorney, Laird Lucas, has triumphed in several federal court decisions on issues such as grazing, logging, water quality, water rights and endangered species.

In February, the group reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management that forces the federal agencies to reconsider how they manage grazing at the Sonoran Desert National Monument southwest of Phoenix.