Forest Service summary (click on the highlighted bullets to see the documents provided by the Forest Service): Litigation Weekly December 20 2019_Final
COURT DECISIONS
The District Court of Montana issued an order denying plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction against the 2019 Yellowstone bison hunt on the Custer Gallatin National Forest. However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court ruling from February that dismissed a lawsuit from the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center on Yellowstone bison management.
- 0002_1_Friends of the Rapid River 18-00465 D. Idaho Order
- 0002_Friends of the Rapid River 18-00465 D. Idaho Memorandum
The District Court of Idaho upheld the Windy Shingle project on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests involving the Healthy Forest Restoration Act and other requirements.
The District Court of Colorado suspended Applications for Permits to Drill on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests until they complete an analysis of the reasonably foreseeable indirect impacts of oil and gas.
NEW CASES
The State of Montana filed an amended complaint against the Defendants, which includes the Forest Service, claiming the State of Montana owns title to submerged lands also claimed by Defendants for former hydropower sites on the Madison, Missouri and Clark Fork Rivers.
The plaintiff filed a complaint in the District Court of Utah against the Forest Service concerning the issuance of term and temporary grazing permits on the Kingston, Forshea and Manning Creek Allotments on Monroe Mountain within the Fishlake National Forest for the 2019 grazing season. (A more colorful version of the story may be found here: “This lawsuit claims these Utah ranchers, like Bundy, don’t recognize the authority of the federal government and have snubbed grazing requirements for years.”)
The plaintiff filed a complaint in the District Court of Montana against the Forest Service concerning the Flathead National Forest 2018 revised Forest Plan and the Lolo, Helena-Lewis & Clark and Kootenai National Forests amendments for grizzly bears. (While, it may be hard to tell from his pro se complaint what the plaintiff’s interest is, this is from the sometime state legislator’s blog: “Policies that I am against are taking out our roads and allowing our forests to be downgraded and such policies are resulting in fires that are destroying our property and Killing our wildlife!”)
NOTICE OF INTENT
Plaintiffs sent a renewed 60-day Notice of intent to Sue pursuant to the Endangered Species Act regarding the Rock Creek Mine project on the Kootenai National Forest after the Fish and Wildlife Service completed a “Supplement to the Biological Opinion” in November of 2019.
OTHER AGENCY CASES
The plaintiffs filed a complaint in the District Court for the District of Columbia against the National Park Service and the Department of Interior concerning the use of motorized electric bicycles within the National Park System.