ELR Citation: ELR 20184
No(s). 03-1139 (6th Cir. Aug 1, 2005)

The court affirms a lower court decision denying environmental groups' request for declaratory and injunctive relief in a suit arising out of the U.S. Forest Service's failure to comply with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and other federal statutes with regard to several Michigan river segments. The Forest Service conceded that it failed to establish detailed river corridor boundaries and that it has not completed comprehensive management plans for a number of river segments as required by law. Nevertheless, the groups lack standing. Although the groups suffered concrete injuries as a result of logging and other activities along several wild and scenic rivers, they failed to establish the necessary causal link between those injuries and the Forest Service's failure to perform its statutory duties. The groups presented no evidence that detailed river corridor boundaries might offer greater protection from logging than the default boundaries already established by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Nor are there any specific facts in the record suggesting that the Forest Service would have authorized even less logging activity, or would have minimized its environmental impact further, had a comprehensive management plan been in place.