OREGON NATURAL RESOURCES v. TIMBER PRODUCTS CO.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in OREGON NATURAL RESOURCES v. TIMBER PRODUCTS CO., No. 05-35063, an appeal in a civil action against the United States. The panel consisted of James R. Browning, Dorothy W. Nelson, and Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, Circuit Judges.
D.W. NELSON, Senior Circuit Judge:
Elaine Brong, Oregon State Director of the Bureau of Land Management (”BLM”), and other parties appeal the district court’s decision invalidating the Timbered Rock Fire Salvage and Elk Creek Watershed Restoration Project (”Timbered Rock Project” or “Project”), a plan developed by the BLM to log nearly a thousand acres of protected land in southwest Oregon after a major forest fire. The district court held that the Timbered Rock Project violated both the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (”FLPMA”) and the National Environmental Policy Act (”NEPA”). We affirm. . . .
O’SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
Both the district court and our court have now ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (”BLM”) violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (”FLPMA”) and the National Environmental Policy Act (”NEPA”) in proposing the Timbered Rock Fire Salvage and Elk Creek Watershed Restoration Project (”Timbered Rock Project” or “Project”) to salvage the remains of a disastrous fire in the Elk Creek Watershed. With respect, I am unpersuaded that BLM violated either Act when the question is viewed under the proper standard of review. Because it appears that both courts have inappropriately substituted their own policy views for the BLM’s, I cannot concur. The majority opinion recognizes that we must not invalidate agency action where the agency can present “a rational connection between the facts found and the conclusions made.” Ante, at 8937. Unfortunately, because I can discern no rational connection between this extremely deferential standard of review and the majority’s conclusions in this case, I must respectfully dissent. I FLPMA authorizes the BLM to “develop, maintain, and, when appropriate, revise land use plans which provide by tracts or areas for the use of the public lands.” 43 U.S.C. . . .