ELR Citation: 45 ELR 20113
No(s). 13-5268 (D.C. Cir. Jun 12, 2015)

The D.C. Circuit reversed a lower court injunction requiring BLM to sell more timber from federal land managed under the Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands Act of 1937. The lower court had sided with timber companies, granting their motions for summary judgment and issuing a mandatory injunction. But the appellate court reversed, holding that none of the companies demonstrated Article III standing. Rather than averring concrete past or ongoing harm connected with timber shortages, the companies offered "general averments" and "conclusory allegations" that the economic harm they suffered was caused by BLM's failure to sell enough timber. Whether BLM's actions will cause future injury is purely speculative. The companies also alleged that the "owl estimation methodology," used in planning federal timber sales to ensure compliance with the ESA, was invalid for lack of notice and opportunity for comment under the APA. But absent evidence that the injury allegedly caused by the methodology will continue in the future, the companies lack standing to pursue their procedural claim.