Earthjustice! fights to protect hunting in 58 Million Acres

[JoseCuervo]

For those who try and keep up with attempts to protect hunting in the west from Dubya and PETA, here is an article....

A Wyoming court ruling that opened the door to energy development and road-building on 58.5 million acres of national forest should be overturned, environmentalists told a federal appeals panel in Denver on Wednesday.

During a hearing before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys for the Wyoming Outdoor Council and seven other conservation groups argued that U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer incorrectly interpreted the law and the evidence in the case when making his ruling of July 14, 2003.

Brimmer found that the public had an inadequate chance to comment on the Clinton-era roadless rule and that prohibiting new roads was equivalent to designating new wilderness - a role reserved for Congress. He issued an injunction blocking the rule from taking effect across the country.


"This regulation was the subject of more public involvement than any in the nation's history," Earthjustice attorney Jim Angell said. "If this doesn't pass muster, nothing ever will."

The Clinton administration's 2001 roadless rule was one of the most far-reaching environmental initiatives in decades.

With Brimmer's injunction in place, the Bush administration has moved to undo the roadless rule completely.

Bush wants to make state governors petition for protecting roadless areas, with no guarantees the Forest Service will agree to their requests. An announcement of the administration's final proposal is expected any day, forest officials said.

Angell said the three-judge panel should overturn Brimmer's injunction because it allowed for new logging, mining and energy leasing in roadless areas across the West. In Colorado, the Forest Service's 2004 decision to issue four gas drilling leases in the Thompson Creek roadless area near Carbondale would have been prohibited by the Clinton rule. Angell pointed to an Oregon timber sale and an Idaho mine as other examples.

The judges quizzed Angell about whether the groups had standing to sue and whether the appeal is moot, given the impending release of President Bush's new roadless rule.

"Despite what you read in the newspapers, judges aren't really interested in jumping into battle when they don't have to," Judge Robert H. Henry said.

Jennifer Golden, Wyoming's assistant state attorney, argued the groups had no right to sue because developing the roadless policy - and undoing it - was at the discretion of the executive branch. Because the Bush administration did not contest Brimmer's ruling, no one could, she said, and conservation groups cannot force the government to keep a rule it does not want.

Judge Robert McConnell seemed to disagree, noting that the Clinton initiative went through a full rulemaking process.

"An agency can't wave its hand and say, 'The roadless rule - we don't like it; it's gone,"' McConnell said.

Golden repeatedly suggested the appeals court had no jurisdiction over the case because Brimmer's ruling meant the law no longer exists.

"It does if we reverse him," McConnell reminded her.