Alaska v. United States Department of Agriculture
The D.C. Circuit held that Alaska's lawsuit challenging the U.S. Forest Service's roadless rule is not time barred. The Forest Service issued the roadless rule in 2001. In 2005, the Forest Service repealed it, but the rule was reinstated by court order in 2006. In 2011, Alaska filed its lawsuit, whi...
Swan View Coalition v. Weber
A district court granted in part and denied in part motions for summary judgment in a case involving logging projects in the Flathead National Forest. In the case, environmental groups challenged the Forest Service's and FWS' authorization of the Glacier Loon Fuels Reduction and Forest Health Projec...
National Parks Conservation Ass'n v. United States Department of Interior
A district court upheld the National Park Service's (NPS') plan to allow off-road vehicle (ORV) use on designated trails in the "addition lands" of Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve. In 1988, Congress authorized the acquisition of what is referred to as the "addition lands," consisting of appr...
Yount v. Salazar
A district court upheld DOI's decision to withdraw more than one million acres of federal land adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park from uranium mining. The withdrawal will close these lands to the exploration and development of uranium mining claims for 20 years, although mining of a few exis...
Reese River Basin Citizens Against Fracking, LLC v. Bureau of Land Management
A district court denied an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin BLM from issuing oil and gas leases in central and southwest Nevada due to allegedly defective environmental analyses. Although BLM has conducted a lease sale, it retains discretion to issue any leases resulting from tha...
Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. Brazell
A district court denied environmental groups' motion for an injunction and stay of an earlier decision that allows logging operations in the Nez Perce National Forest to proceed. The court previously held that the U.S. Forest Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously when it approved a project...
Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance v. Jewell
A district court upheld National Park Service (NPS) regulations restricting off-road vehicle (ORV) use in North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore at certain times of the year. Petitioners argued the rule was arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance w...
League of Wilderness Defenders/Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project v. Connaughton
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision denying environmental groups’ motion to preliminarily enjoin a logging project in the Whitman-Wallowa National Forest in northeast Oregon. The lower court held that the groups were not likely to succeed on any of their ...