ELR Citation: 45 ELR 20145
No(s). 11-35517 (9th Cir. Jul 29, 2015)

The Ninth Circuit reinstated application of the roadless rule to the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, holding that USDA violated the APA when it exempted the Forest from the rule. When USDA issued the roadless rule in 2001, it refused to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the rule, which bans road building and logging on approximately 58 million acres of National Forest lands. But in 2003, relying on the same factual record, USDA reversed course and determined that the roadless rule was not necessary for the Tongass, thereby opening up nearly 9 million acres, or half, of the Forest to road building and logging. Because USDA failed to provide a reasoned explanation for the contradictory findings, the court held that the Tongass exemption was invalid. It therefore upheld a lower court's reinstatement of the roadless rule to the Tongass.