McClung v. Paul
The Eighth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not abuse its discretion when it revoked homeowners' permits to maintain a boat dock and stone steps on the public land between their property and a lake. The Corps revoked the permits after the homeowners sprayed herbicide and mowed ...
Alaska Wilderness League v. Jewell
The Ninth Circuit upheld the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE's) approval of oil spill response plans for an oil company's leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas on Alaska's Arctic coast. Several environmental groups claimed that BSEE's approval was arbitrary and capricious un...
Swanson Group Mfg., LLC v. Jewell
The D.C. Circuit reversed a lower court injunction requiring BLM to sell more timber from federal land managed under the Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands Act of 1937. The lower court had sided with timber companies, granting their motions for summary judgment and is...
Turner v. Georgia River Network
Georgia's highest court held that the state's 25-foot buffer zone for development projects along state waters does not apply to wetlands. The applicable statute does not require a buffer for state waters alongside banks without "wrested vegetation." The language at issue states, in pertinent part: "...