Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/960/776/350201/
Timestamp: 2020-08-05 17:20:39
Document Index: 516721286

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 3120', '§ 301', '§ 508', '§ 202', '§ 301', '§ 301']

City of Tenakee Springs, et al., Plaintiffs-appellants, v. James Franzel, et al., Defendants,andf. Dale Robertson, et al., Defendants-appellees,andalaska Pulp Corporation (apc), et al.,defendants-intervenors-appellees.sam Hanlon, Sr., et al., Plaintiffs-appellants, v. Michael Barton, Defendant,anddale Robertson, et al., Defendants-appellees,andalaska Pulp Corporation, Defendant-intervenor-appellee, 960 F.2d 776 (9th Cir. 1992) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Ninth Circuit › 1992 › City of Tenakee Springs, et al., Plaintiffs-appellants, v. James Franzel, et al., Defendants,andf. D...
City of Tenakee Springs, et al., Plaintiffs-appellants, v. James Franzel, et al., Defendants,andf. Dale Robertson, et al., Defendants-appellees,andalaska Pulp Corporation (apc), et al.,defendants-intervenors-appellees.sam Hanlon, Sr., et al., Plaintiffs-appellants, v. Michael Barton, Defendant,anddale Robertson, et al., Defendants-appellees,andalaska Pulp Corporation, Defendant-intervenor-appellee, 960 F.2d 776 (9th Cir. 1992)
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit - 960 F.2d 776 (9th Cir. 1992) Argued and Submitted Aug. 28, 1991. Decided Feb. 12, 1992. As Amended April 9, 1992. As Amended on Denial of Rehearingand Rehearing En BancJune 2, 1992
We have seen this matter twice before. This dispute began with the City's challenge to the EIS for the 1981-86 operating period. In City of Tenakee Springs v. Block, 778 F.2d 1402 (9th Cir. 1985) (Tenakee I), this court reversed the district court's denial of the city's motion for a preliminary injunction. Our opinion in Tenakee I contains a discussion of the APC contract and the need for a site specific EIS for each operating plan. Last year, in City of Tenakee Springs v. Clough, 915 F.2d 1308 (9th Cir. 1990) (Tenakee II), this court reversed the district court's denial of the City and Hanlon's motion for a preliminary injunction in their challenge to the 1989 SEIS prepared for the 1981-1986 and 1986-1990 operating periods. Our opinion in Tenakee II contains a discussion of the factual and procedural background leading to that point in the litigation. We found that appellants had raised several serious legal questions concerning the adequacy of the SEIS's cumulative impact analysis and the range of alternatives considered. Accordingly, we remanded for further proceedings and ordered that the injunction entered by this court pending appeal continue during the district court's consideration of the merits of plaintiffs' claims.
Our conclusion is based on the fact that there has been significant intervening legislation since we issued our 1984 and 1990 opinions ordering preliminary injunctive relief in Tenakee I and II. In November 1990, Congress passed the Tongass Timber Reform Act ("TTRA"). Pub. L. No. 101-626, 104 Stat. 4426-4435 (Nov. 28, 1990). In doing so, Congress took a hard look at many of the concerns we ourselves expressed about this long-term contract in Tenakee II. 915 F.2d at 1311-12.
In Tenakee II we were concerned about the government's refusal to consider the environmental effects of harvesting the totality of the contract requirements, its refusal to consider any modification of the contract requirements, and its lack of attention to the cumulative impact this totality of harvest would have on subsistence users pursuant to section 810(a) of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 3120(a) (ANILCA). Id. at 1311-13. With the passage of the TTRA, however, many of our concerns have been addressed. Congress has reduced the volume to be harvested, expanded the non-harvestable wilderness areas, and has ordered the government to prepare an extensive study of the environmental effects of the contract requirements in order to better determine whether and how further to modify the contract. See e.g. Pub. L. No. 101-626, § 301, § 508, § 202, 104 Stat. 4428-4432.
Moreover, the methodology for ensuring future compliance with environmental laws has been changed. The TTRA provides that subsequent cutting will be pursuant to the requirements now imposed for environmental study of individual sales rather than on the basis of the five-year plans the law required in 1989. See Pub. L. No. 101-626, § 301(c), 104 Stat. 4430-4431. These modifications, combined with the Act's requirement that the Secretary of Agriculture assess whether the government can both comply with the provisions of applicable environmental laws and meet the contract volume requirements, cause us to conclude that the long-term cumulative carryover effects we feared would result from the five-year allocation methodology we confronted in Tenakee II have been eliminated.
Thus, with the passage of the TTRA in November 1990, there is no longer the same threat of irreparable harm resulting from the long-term carryover effects of logging carried out pursuant to the procedurally suspect, contract driven, 1989 SEIS. Any such threat has been dissipated through Congress' decisions to step in to conduct its own study, to modify the contract and to mandate further intensive agency review. Accordingly, although perceived procedural deficiencies in the SEIS at issue caused us to pause and remand this matter to the district court for further proceedings in Tenakee II, these same inadequacies have now been addressed by Congress and so, will not support the imposition of permanent injunctive relief today. See Amoco Production Co. v. Gambell, 480 U.S. 531, 542, 107 S. Ct. 1396, 1402, 94 L. Ed. 2d 542 (1987) citing (Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. 305, 313, 102 S. Ct. 1798, 1803, 72 L. Ed. 2d 91 (1982) (no mechanical obligation to grant an injunction for every violation of law)).
As the majority points out, this is not the first time we have seen this case. In City of Tenakee Springs v. Clough, 915 F.2d 1308 (9th Cir. 1990) (Tenakee II), we held that plaintiffs were entitled to a preliminary injunction because they had demonstrated the possibility of irreparable harm and the likelihood that they would succeed on the merits. Today, the majority holds that we need not reach the merits because the equities do not favor permanent injunctive relief. I disagree. It is sometimes said of judges that we cannot see the forest for the trees. In this case, it is the trees that the majority overlooks by focusing improperly on the forest as a whole.
The majority also notes that the TTRA will prevent long-term carryovers in the future. However, the same provision that bars future carryovers will force the Alaska Pulp Corporation ("APC") to harvest all timber currently designated under the allegedly inadequate SEIS within three years if it hopes to receive further offerings of timber. TTRA § 301(c) (3). The one major effect the TTRA will have on the particular tracts at issue here is to ensure that a large number of the trees on them will be logged in a relatively short period of time. If anything, this tips the equities in favor of the plaintiffs and makes it even more important that we address their claims on the merits.
Plaintiffs contend that the Forest Service did not consider reasonable alternatives to making such a large amount of timber available in a single year. Indeed, they argue that the government's contract with APC did not require the government to offer 700 MMBF during the 1986-90 period. In Tenakee II, we expressed our view that plaintiffs' "interpretation of the language of the contract is not unreasonable." 915 F.2d at 1311. " [I]t is not at all clear," we said, "that the contract requires the government to make available to APC hundreds of millions more board feet than it could possibly cut during the five-year period." Id.
Even if the contract with APC does require that 700 MMBF be made available during the 1986-90 period, plaintiffs argue that the Forest Service should have considered cancelling or modifying the contract. We noted in Tenakee II that the Forest Service's regulations permit it to cancel or modify a contract where it would result in serious environmental degradation or resource damage. Id. at 1312. The SEIS failed to consider not only this alternative but also the alternative of modifying the contract by congressional enactment. " [T]he fact that an alternative requires legislative action does not automatically justify excluding it from an EIS." City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2d 1016, 1021 (9th Cir. 1986), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 870, 108 S. Ct. 197, 98 L. Ed. 2d 148 (1987).