ELR Citation: 53 ELR 20112
No(s). 20-5008 (D.C. Cir. Jul 18, 2023)

The D.C. Circuit reversed summary judgment for Oregon counties, trade groups, and timber companies in five lawsuits concerning President Obama's expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Plaintiffs argued that by outlawing logging on land included in the monument through Proclamation 9564, the president violated the Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands Act's (O&C Act's) directive that O&C timberland be managed "for permanent forest production"; that BLM's 2016 resource management plans (RMPs) violated the Act by placing O&C land in reserves where logging was not permitted; and that the Act imposed on the Secretary of DOI a non-discretionary duty to sell a certain amount of timber each year. The district court granted summary judgment for plaintiffs in all five suits, holding that the O&C Act mandated timber production on all O&C timberland and precluded expansion of the monument, notwithstanding the president's Antiquities Act authority; finding that the O&C Act precluded BLM from reserving O&C land from timber production; and directing the Secretary to offer the "allowable sale quantity" for sale every year in perpetuity. The appellate court found that Proclamation 9564 reclassified the land the president added to the monument as non-timberland, thus removing it from the O&C Act's "permanent forest production" mandate; that the RMPs were within the Secretary's discretion under the O&C Act and consistent with her obligations under the ESA and CWA; and that the requested relief concerning the annual amount of timber sold did not constitute discrete agency action. It reversed summary judgment for plaintiffs and remanded for further proceedings.