HIGH SIERRA HIKERS ASS'N v. Moore

561 F. Supp. 2d 1107, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79134, 2008 WL 2025012
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMay 8, 2008
DocketC-00-01239 EDL
StatusPublished

This text of 561 F. Supp. 2d 1107 (HIGH SIERRA HIKERS ASS'N v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
HIGH SIERRA HIKERS ASS'N v. Moore, 561 F. Supp. 2d 1107, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79134, 2008 WL 2025012 (N.D. Cal. 2008).

Opinion

ORDER FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

ELIZABETH D. LaPORTE, United States Magistrate Judge.

On April 10, 2000, Plaintiffs High Sierra Hikers Association, et al. (“Plaintiffs”) filed this action for declaratory and injunc-tive relief against Defendants Bradley Powell, et al. (“Defendants”) 1 , alleging violations of the National Forest Management Act (“NFMA”), 16 U.S.C. §§ 1600-1687, the Wilderness Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1131-1136, the National Environmental *1111 Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321-4370d and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706 arising from the Forest Service’s allowance of special use permits for commercial packstock operations in the Ansel Adams and John Muir Wilderness areas. On June 5, 2001, the Court issued an order regarding the merits of the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, and on January 9, 2002, after further briefing, issued an order granting injunctive relief. Both sides appealed.

On December 1, 2004, the Ninth Circuit issued its decision affirming the Court’s ruling that the Forest Service violated NEPA and the Court’s order of injunctive relief. See High Sierra Hikers Ass’n v. Blackwell, 390 F.3d 630 (9th Cir.2004). The Ninth Circuit reversed the Court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Forest Service under the Wilderness Act, remanding “for a determination of appropriate relief under the Wilderness Act for remediation of any degradation that has already occurred.” Blackwell, 390 F.3d at 649.

At a status conference in February 2005, the parties agreed that the question of remediation of past wilderness degradation should be held in abeyance until the Forest Service completed the court-ordered environmental analyses pursuant to NEPA by the end of 2005 and 2006. Subsequently, on December 27, 2005, the Forest Service issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement (“2005 FEIS”) and Record of Decision for the Trail and Commercial Pack Stock Management in the Ansel Adams and John Muir Wildernesses (“2005 ROD”) adopting Alternative 2-Modified from the FEIS to address the cumulative impacts of pack stock operations in the Ansel Adams and John Muir Wilderness Areas. Administrative Record (“AR”) 8880, et seq. On August 31, 2006, Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint challenging the 2005 ROD.

In May 2007, Plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that the Forest Service violated the Wilderness Act and NEPA, and seeking wide-ranging in-junctive relief. On October 30, 2007, the Court granted in part and denied in part Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment and granted in part and denied in part Defendants’ Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment. The factual background is set forth at length in the Court’s October 30, 2007 Order, as well as its earlier June 5, 2001 Order and the Ninth Circuit’s decision on appeal. In the October 30, 2007 Order, the Court held that: (1) the Forest Service’s reliance on the 2005 Needs Assessment to calculate need for commercial packstock services was arbitrary and capricious; (2) the Destination Management plan contained in the 2005 Plan violated the Wilderness Act; (3) the Forest Service failed to take a hard look as required by NEPA at the harm caused to the Yosemite Toad by commercial packstock services; (4) the Forest Service failed to take a hard look at water quality issues in the 2005 FEIS and allowed further degradation through increased grazing in already impacted areas in violation of the Wilderness Act; and (5) the Forest Service’s change to the campfire policy was arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Wilderness Act and NEPA.

On January 11, 2008, Plaintiffs filed a motion for permanent injunction based on the Court’s finding of violations in the October 30, 2007 Order. On March 28, 2008, after full briefing on the injunctive relief by the parties as well as by Defendants-Intervenors, the Court held a hearing on Plaintiffs’ motion for permanent injunction. On March 31, 2008, the Court issued an Order requiring the parties to meet and confer to narrow the issues and *1112 file a joint proposed order on injunctive relief. On April 15, 2008, the parties submitted their proposed order, which continued to dispute almost all aspects of the proposed relief.

DISCUSSION

As stated in High Sierra Hikers v. Blackwell, 890 F.3d 630, 641-42 (9th Cir.2004):

A district court has “broad latitude in fashioning equitable relief when necessary to remedy an established wrong.” Natural Res. Def. Council v. Southwest Marine, Inc., 236 F.3d 985, 999 (9th Cir.2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). The traditional bases for in-junctive relief are irreparable injury and inadequacy of legal remedies. See Amoco Prod. Co. v. Village of Gambell, 480 U.S. 531, 542, 107 S.Ct. 1396, 94 L.Ed.2d 542 (1987). In issuing an injunction, the court must balance the equities between the parties and give due regard to the public interest. Id. “Environmental injury, by its nature, can seldom be adequately remedied by money damages and is often permanent or at least of long duration, i.e. irreparable.” Id. at 545, 107 S.Ct. 1396.... In the NEPA context, irreparable injury flows from the failure to evaluate the environmental impact of a major federal action. Thomas v. Peterson, 753 F.2d 754, 764 (9th Cir.1985). While an injunction does not automatically issue upon a finding that an agency violated NEPA, “the presence of strong NEPA claims gives rise to more liberal standards for granting an injunction.” American Motorcyclist Ass’n v. Watt, 714 F.2d 962, 965 (9th Cir.1983). If environmental injury is sufficiently likely, the balance of harms will usually favor the issuance of an injunction to protect the environment. Amoco, 480 U.S. at 545, 107 S.Ct. 1396, 94 L.Ed.2d 542. . . . In determining whether to issue an injunction, courts also consider the public interest. Amoco, 480 U.S. at 542, 107 S.Ct. 1396, 94 L.Ed.2d 542.

Blackwell, 390 F.3d at 641-42. Plaintiffs have demonstrated the need for injunctive relief. As described in the Court’s October 30, 2007 Order, the Forest Service has violated the Wilderness Act and NEPA in significant aspects. Further, the Court has found that environmental injury flowed from these violations.

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Related

Amoco Production Co. v. Village of Gambell
480 U.S. 531 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Thomas v. Peterson
753 F.2d 754 (Ninth Circuit, 1985)
High Sierra Hikers Association v. Blackwell
390 F.3d 630 (Ninth Circuit, 2004)
Northern Cheyenne Tribe v. Norton
503 F.3d 836 (Ninth Circuit, 2007)
Florida Key Deer v. Brown
386 F. Supp. 2d 1281 (S.D. Florida, 2005)
Montana Wilderness Ass'n v. Fry
408 F. Supp. 2d 1032 (D. Montana, 2006)
National Parks & Conservation Ass'n v. Babbitt
241 F.3d 722 (Ninth Circuit, 2001)
American Motorcyclist Ass'n v. Watt
714 F.2d 962 (Ninth Circuit, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
561 F. Supp. 2d 1107, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79134, 2008 WL 2025012, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/high-sierra-hikers-assn-v-moore-cand-2008.