The recent case of Sierra Club v. Department of Interior¹ may supply a legal basis for compelling the Department of Interior to curtail activities on lands peripheral to any National Park when such activities have an adverse effect on it. The case may even permit the National Park Service to force the Secretary of Interior to go to Congress for funds for such environmentally protective actions if the Office of Management and Budget fails to provide them. On the other hand, on a narrower reading, the case may only apply to the Redwood National Park, because of unique features of the Act² that created it.

The recent opinion follows Judge Sweigert's original decision filed in 1974,³ in which plaintiff's complaint, which alleged that logging activities on peripheral lands were damaging the Park, survived a motion to dismiss. In Redwood I, the court held that the Secretary of Interior has a general fiduciary obligation under the National Park System Act,⁴ which provides that the Park Service shall "promote and regulate the national parks . . . and to provide for the enjoyment of same by such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for future generations." Redwood I also relied on language in an 1891 Supreme Court case, Knight v. United Land Association, which proclaimed that:

The Secretary is the guardian of the public lands. [He is obliged] . . . to see that the law is carried out and that none of the public domain is wasted or disposed of to a party not entitled to it.