A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service complied with NEPA when it promulgated the land and resource management plan (LRMP) for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana. The forest, the state's largest, covers 3.35 million acres and stretches over eight counties in southwestern...

The Ninth Circuit upheld rules DOI and USDA issued in 1999 that implement part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) concerning subsistence fishing and hunting rights. In Alaska v. Babbitt, 72 F.3d 698 (9th Cir. 1995) (Katie John I), the court held that because Congress inc...

The Ninth Circuit held that a court may not approve a consent decree that substantially and permanently amends regulations that the agency could only otherwise amend by complying with statutory rulemaking procedures. The consent decree at issue in the case arose from a settlement between environment...

The Federal Circuit reversed the dismissal of landowners "rails to trails" takings claims against the government. The landowners alleged that the government's issuance of a Notice of Interim Trail Use or Abandonment (NITU) in 2006 constituted a compensable Fifth Amendment taking because it operated ...

A district court dismissed as untimely Alaska's lawsuit challenging the 2001 roadless rule, which prohibits roadwork and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of national forest, including 14.7 million acres of the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in Alaska. Alaska's cause of action accrued in...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the U.S. Forest Service's record of decision determining the method for restoring a flood-damaged road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. The Forest Service's interpretation of the applicable fish and wildlife restoration standards is reasonable. Accordingly,...

The Ninth Circuit held that BLM complied with NEPA and FLPMA when it allowed a uranium mine to resume operations, after a 17-year hiatus, under a plan of operations the agency approved in 1988. Environmental groups argued that the 1988 plan of operations became ineffective after the mine closed in t...