ELR Citation: ELR 20039
No(s). s. 04-3629, -3632 (8th Cir. Feb 15, 2006)

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service has the authority to recalculate the annual motorboat use base-period for certain lake chains within the Boundary Waters Canoe Areas Wilderness (BWCAW) to correct a significant legal error made manifest by an earlier court ruling. Although Congress was silent as to whether the Forest Service may recalculate the statutory cap based on legal error, the Forest Service's interpretation that the BWCAW Act allows it to recalculate the base period in this instance is reasonable and not contrary to the purposes of the Act. The court, therefore, reversed in part a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of an environmental group challenging the agency's authority. The court, however, affirmed the lower court's decision that the Forest Service's homeowner and resort non-exempt lake chain use recalculation for the Moose, Saganaga, and Farm Lake Chains was arbitrary and capricious.

[A related decision in this litigation is published at 29 ELR 20524.]