Articles

Washington limits the reach of the public trust doctrine. Congress gets an earful on the problems with the federal permitting process Amicus Brief Filed in Challenge to San Francisco's Discriminatory Sign Ban Santa Barbara inspection case headed to a hearing Washington limits the reach of the public trust doctrine. Yesterday, the ...

In 2012, Oregon-based Scott Timber Co. purchased a contract from the federal Bureau of Land Management to harvest 187 acres of a western Oregon forest designated for timber harvesting. As part of the sale, the Bureau prepared an environmental assessment and a "Finding of No Significant Impact" pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA ...

Today, we filed our notice of appeal in Granat v. USDA, a challenge to the Forest Service's massive route-closure initiative on the Plumas National Forest in northeastern California. In 2005, the Forest Service promulgated a Travel Management Rule. The Rule's purpose was to formalize and combine the existing network of legally authorized governmen ...

On Monday of this week, I presented at oral argument at the 9th Circuit in our challenge to the Forest Service's closure of over 90% of the historical user-created motorized routes in Tahoe National Forest.  The Forest Service closed the routes without complying with the requirements for alternatives analysis, which is the heart of the environme ...

If you thought 23,000 pages would be sufficient to document a federal government action closing roads and trails in a national forest, you'd be wrong.  That's the number of pages it took the Forest Service to "summarize" its action to close routes in California's Plumas National Forest to off-roaders.  Most of the pages in that adminis ...

In a democracy, there are few things more troublesome to the body politic (or to just plain folks) than bureaucrats who ingest large doses of self-importance while trying to expand their limited powers.  If it weren't so dangerous, it'd be pitiful. That's what's happening in Northern California at the Plumas National Forest, where the denizens ...

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was intended to protect the human environment, not to keep humans out of the environment.  Yet that is exactly how the United States Forest Service is using NEPA - to keep people away from forests.  The Service is closing forest access to those among us who are unable to hike countless miles ...

Late yesterday, after the Ninth Circuit denied its petition for rehearing, Drakes Bay Oyster Company announced in a statement that it will seek relief in the United States Supreme Court.  The oyster farm is fighting for survival after the Department of the Interior refused to renew a permit that the farm needs to remain in operation, and had sued ...

This morning the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Drakes Bay Oyster Company's petition for rehearing, and issued an amended opinion in the case which once again upholds the trial court's decision to deny the oyster farm an injunction which would prevent the closure of the farm. The oyster farm will have to consider its next steps as it defend ...