ELR Citation: 52 ELR 20084
No(s). 20-35508 (9th Cir. Jul 18, 2022)

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for FWS in a challenge to its combined EIS and comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) concerning the continued leasing of refuge land for farming in the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Environmental groups argued the EIS/CCP violated the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act (Refuge Act) by failing to provide sufficient water for one of the refuges and delegating administrative duties to the Bureau of Reclamation; the Refuge Act and the Kuchel Act by authorizing an improper mix of agricultural land and natural habitat; and NEPA by failing to consider a reduced-agriculture alternative. The court recognized that FWS was constrained by droughts that prevented the refuges from realizing the goals of proper waterfowl management and by a system of water rights beyond its control, and found that the EIS/CCP fulfilled FWS' obligations under the Refuge Act with respect to providing sufficient water; that the balance struck by the EIS/CCP was consistent with the Refuge and Kuchel Acts; that the Bureau's responsibilities under the EIS/CCP were not "administration" within the meaning of the Refuge Act's anti-delegation policy; and that FWS sufficiently considered whether to reduce acreage devoted to lease-land farming and sufficiently explained why it did not list reduction as an alternative.