ELR Citation: ELR 20595
No(s). L-85-69-CA (E.D. Tex. Jan 19, 1988)

The court holds environmental groups are not entitled to judicial review of the final land and resource management plan (LRMP) for Texas national forests because they have failed to exhaust their administrative remedies with the Forest Service, but the Forest Service's denial of plaintiffs' request for a stay pending the resolution of the administrative appeal is final action subject to judicial review. Plaintiffs allege that the Forest Service's plan of even-aged management violates the National Forest Management Act and is causing a decline in the numbers of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. The court first holds that plaintiffs' challenges to the LRMP and its accompanying environmental impact statement (EIS) are premature since plaintiffs' appeal of the LRMP and EIS are pending before the Forest Service. The 8- to 15-month delay before the Forest Service will decide the appeal is not so unreasonable as to warrant making an exception to the exhaustion of administrative remedies requirement. Plaintiffs have also not shown that the Forest Service's practices will irreparably harm the woodpecker population during the interim. The court next holds that the Forest Service's denial of plaintiffs' request for a stay pending a decision in the administrative appeal is final action subject to judicial review.

[A previous decision in this litigation appears at 16 ELR 20049.]

Counsel for Plaintiffs
Douglas L. Honnold
Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, Inc.
1600 Broadway St., Suite 1600, Denver CO 80202
(303) 863-9898

Counsel for Defendants
Ruth Harris Yeager, Ass't U.S. Attorney
110 N. College, Suite 600, Tyler TX 75702
(214) 597-8146
Wells D. Burgess
Land and Natural Resources Division
Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530
(202) 633-2769