In re Big Thorne Project
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
857 F.3d 968 (2017)
- Written by Colette Routel, JD
Facts
In 2008, the National Forest Service (defendant) developed a forest plan for Tongass National Forest pursuant to the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA). Later, the National Forest Service approved a logging project within the forest known as the Big Thorne Project. Environmental groups (plaintiffs) sued the National Forest Service to challenge both the 2008 forest plan and the Big Thorne Project. Regulations promulgated under NFMA required that national forests be managed to maintain viable populations of native species, and the environmental groups argued that the 2008 forest plan and the Big Thorne Project violated this requirement, because they would not protect the Alexander Archipelago wolf. The National Forest Service disagreed, noting that the Big Thorne Project was consistent with the 2008 forest plan and that the National Forest Service’s modeling showed that the 2008 forest plan had a high probability of protecting wolf viability through ensuring low road density in core wolf habitat, limiting wolf hunting, and providing habitat for the wolf’s main food source, deer.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kozinski, J.)
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