Rocky Mountain Wild, Inc. v. United States Forest Service

138 F. Supp. 3d 1216, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132873, 2015 WL 5728811
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedSeptember 30, 2015
DocketCivil Action No. 14-CV-2496-WYD-KMT
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 138 F. Supp. 3d 1216 (Rocky Mountain Wild, Inc. v. United States Forest Service) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rocky Mountain Wild, Inc. v. United States Forest Service, 138 F. Supp. 3d 1216, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132873, 2015 WL 5728811 (D. Colo. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER ON MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

. Wiley Y. Daniel, Senior United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

This case arises out of a request by the Plaintiff on February 27, 2014, to Defendant United States Forest Service (“Forest Service”) for certain agency records pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, pertaining to the development and construction of the Village at Wolf Creek • Access Project (‘Wolf Creek Project”) in the Rio Grande National Forest (“RGNF”) of Colorado, a project undertaken by RGNF under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”).

In order to comply with NEPA, the RGNF was required to draft an Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) and a [1219]*1219Record of Decision (“ROD”), whose legal sufficiency was evaluated by the Office of General Counsel (“OGC”) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2010, RGNF entered into an agreement with Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture (“LMJV”) for a land exchange to provide year-round access to this land.1 The Forest Service used a third-party contractor, Western Ecological Resource, Inc. (‘WER”), to prepare drafts of the EIS and ROD. Copies were distributed for public comment in August 2012. The final EIS and ROD were published on November 20, 2014.

On February 27, 2014, Plaintiff submitted a written request to the Forest Service’s FOIA Officer. The relevant portion of the FOIA request read as follows:

Under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, Rocky Mountain Wild, San Juan Citizens Alliance and San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council request copies of all communications arid records of communications between the Forest Service and outside entities relating to the Village at Wolf Creek Access Project, including but not limited to, communications related to the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Endangered Species Act consultation, Army Corps of Engineers reviews, and other federal, state, and local government reviews and approvals.
In particular this request seeks all agency records created or obtained by the Forest Service concerning the Village at Wolf Creek Access Project after January 1, 2008 that involves communications between:
• The Forest Service and other federal, state or local agencies;
• The Forest Service and the Lea-vell/McCombs ^oint . partnership and their associates;
• The Forest Service and Tetra Tech or other third-party contractor or similar entities engaged in preparing the EIS or portions thereof;
• The Forest Service and any members of the public;
• The Forest Service and any other external entity.
The reference to any entity includes any and all employees, contractors, partners, subsidiaries, parent corporations, board members, officers, managers, attorneys, agents, and any other person acting on the entity’s' behalf. Responsive records are likely maintained in various levels of the Forest Service’ organizational structure, including the Ranger Districts, Supervisor’s Office, State and Regional Offices, General Counsel’s Offices, and Washington D.C. Offices. When responding, please designate one point of agency contact so this FOIA can be fulfilled in a timely manner.

Pl.’s FOIA Request (EOF. No. 15, Ex. 3).

The Forest Service issued a partial response to the FOIA request on April 9, 2014,. comprised of 6,684 pages of information, and a notice that thirteen documents had been forwarded to the Rocky Mountain Regional Office (“RMRO”) for review. On April 28, 2014, the Forest Service provided a second release of information, including 287 pages within 121 documents, 58 of which were released in full, and 63 in part. Of the thirteen documents referred to RMRO, seven were released to Plaintiff in full, and six in part. RMRO also found 163 documents as a result of its own search. Fifty of those documents were not [1220]*1220released on the basis that they were determined to be either nonresponsive or dupli-cative of documents already released; five documents, comprising 1,684 pages, were withheld in full; 57 were released to Plaintiff in part, and 51 were released in full. The Forest Service and the RMRO claimed to have withheld entire documents or portions therein pursuant to exemptions 4, 5, and 6 under 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). The April 28, 2014 release constituted an adverse determination, and Plaintiff was advised it could file an administrative appeal.

Plaintiffs filed an administrative appeal on June 12, 2014. The Forest Service conducted another search for responsive documents in September 2014. On December 1, 2014, the Forest Service issued its response to Plaintiffs appeal, in which it reversed the withholdings under exemption 4, and included fifteen additional pages of responsive documents not previously disclosed.

Plaintiff filed this action on September 9, 2014, alleging that Defendants failed to provide all of the responsive documents as requested in the original FOIA request, and failed to respond to the appeal in the statutory timeframe.

Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on February 6, 2015 (ECF No. 15), and Plaintiff subsequently filed a cross motion for partial summary judgment (ECF No. 19) on March 12, 2015. Defendants continue to assert that withholding documents under exemptions 5 and 6 is appropriate. Defendants also filed a motion to strike evidence that was included in Plaintiff’s response to Defendants’ motion for summary judgment (ECF No. 20), namely exhibits 1 and 8. For the reasons stated below, I grant Plaintiffs motion in part, and deny in part, and I deny Defendants’ motion to the extent further evaluation of withheld documents is necessary in order to determine whether exemption 5 under FOIA has been properly applied.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

FOIA actions are typically decided on motions for summary judgment. See Anderson v. Health & Human Servs., 907 F.2d 936, 942 (10th Cir.1990); Info. Network for Responsible Mining (“INFORM”) v. Bureau of Land Mgmt., 611 F.Supp.2d 1178, 1182 (D.Colo.2009); Pagosans for Public Lands v. U.S. Forest Serv., 2007 WL 5061698, *1 (D.Colo. Aug. 22, 2007). A FOIA defendant may prevail on a motion for summary judgment if it proves that the documents within the FOIA request have been produced or fall within a statutory exemption. Pub. Emps. for Envtl. Responsibility (“PEER”) v. United States Envtl. Prot. Agency, 978 F.Supp. 955, 959 (D.Colo.1997).

Pursuant to rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the court may grant summary judgment where 'the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the...moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.' Fed. R. Civ. P.

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138 F. Supp. 3d 1216, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132873, 2015 WL 5728811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rocky-mountain-wild-inc-v-united-states-forest-service-cod-2015.