Update on Wild & Scenic River Lawsuit
In 2001, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, Center for Biological Diversity and Superior Wilderness Action Network first filed a lawsuit against the Hiawatha and Ottawa National Forests for not implementing management plans for 9 of the 11 Wild and Scenic Rivers under their jurisdiction.
In December 2002, District Court Judge Gordon Quist ruled against us. Without hearing oral arguments, Quist accepted Forest Service claims that we lacked standing.
Bond Falls photo Doug Cornett
We appealed the District Court’s ruling to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. A 3-member panel listened to oral arguments in August 2004. In August 2005, the appeals court panel ruled against us, again claiming we lacked standing.
On September 15, 2005, we petitioned the Sixth Circuit Court to rehear the case, and suggested that it be done en banc, or before the entire court. An en banc hearing is not usually ordered but may be done to 1) secure or maintain uniformity of its decisions, or 2) address issues of exceptional importance.
On October 20, we learned that the court will review our case. We do not yet know if we will get to argue the case before the full court.Our case is based on 2 charges – that the Forest Service failed to establish detailed river corridor boundaries by the 1993 statutory deadline and did not enact comprehensive river management plans by the 1995 deadline. The Forest Service has never disputed these claims. However, they did argue that our challenge had to be coupled with site-specific actions that would harm the river corridors, such as road-building and timber cutting, to give us constitutional standing to sue.
In our case, the ruling of the Sixth Circuit Panel conflicts with 2 Supreme Court cases and at least 1 other Sixth Circuit Court case. Under theAdministrative Procedures Act, the Forest Service’s failure to act, by not implementing management plans and defining river boundaries, constitutes a level of harm that makes our case ripe for judicial review.
Our attorneys in this case are Brent Plater of the Center for Biological Diversity and Matt Kenna of the Western Environmental Law Center. Read our Petition for Rehearing.