Sierra Club loses Superior National Forest plan appeal

[Lee Borgersen]

10/22/2010 1:14:00 PM

 

 
Sierra Club loses Superior National Forest plan appeal
U.S. Court of Appeals upholds District Court's dismissal of Sierra Club lawsuit challenging the forest plan for Superior National Forest.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has upheld a U.S. District Court ruling against all claims in a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club, which alleged that the U.S. Forest Service had violated the National Environmental Policy Act in revising the forest plan for the Superior National Forest.

In January 2009, U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Judge Schiltz had dismissed both counts by the Sierra Club, one contending that the forest plan does not adequately consider the effects on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of managing the surrounding areas of the Superior National Forest, and the other contending the forest plan is based on flawed data about roads and trails within the Superior National Forest.

In its ruling filed Oct. 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals said: "The (Forest Service's) clear intention to act with neutrality towards the (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness), the evaluation of specific impacts to the wilderness area (including certain 'edge effects'), and the inclusion of the BWCAW within broader environmental analyses persuade us that the Forest Service took the 'hard look' required of it under (the National Environmental Policy Act). We thus conclude that the Forest Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in its development of the (Final Environmental Impact Statement)."

Wayne Brandt, executive vice president of the Minnesota Timber Producers Association and Minnesota Forest Industries - two of the intervenor defendants in the suits - said members of Minnesota's forest products industry were not surprised by the appellate court's decision.

"For years the Sierra Club has tried everything it could to convince people that Minnesota's forests and the BWCAW are not being cared for, and each time the court has found the Sierra Club's charges to be baseless," said Brandt. "Now that the U.S. Court of Appeals has also issued the same finding, we hope the Sierra Club will finally discontinue its constant policy of making baseless claims that jeopardize the livelihood of thousands."