Source: https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/case-opinion/b/case/posts/norton-v-s-utah-wilderness-alliance
Timestamp: 2020-03-31 17:02:08
Document Index: 744455640

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 706', '§ 706', '§ 1701', '§ 1701', '§ 1702', '§ 1702', '§ 1702', '§ 1701']

In this case, we must decide whether the authority of a federal court under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to "compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed," 5 U.S.C. § 706(1) [5 USCS § 706(1)], extends to the review of the United States Bureau of Land Management's stewardship of [*58] public lands under certain statutory provisions and its own planning documents.
Almost half the State of Utah, about 23 million acres, is federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the Department of Interior. For nearly [****6] 30 years, BLM's management of public lands has been governed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), 90 Stat 2744, 43 U.S.C. § 1701 et seq. [43 USCS §§ 1701 et seq., which "established a policy in favor of retaining public lands for multiple use management." Lujan v. Nat'l Wildlife Fed'n, 497 U.S. 871, 877, 111 L. Ed. 2d 695, 110 S. Ct. 3177 (1990). "Multiple use management" is a deceptively simple term that describes the enormously complicated task of striking a balance among the many competing uses to which land can be put, "including, but not limited to, recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, and [uses serving] natural scenic, scientific and historical values." 43 U.S.C. § 1702(c) [43 USCS § 1702(c)]. A second management goal, "sustained yield," requires BLM to control depleting uses over time, so as to ensure a high level of valuable uses in the future. § 1702(h). To [***147] these ends, FLPMA establishes a dual regime of inventory and planning. Sections 1711 and 1712, respectively, provide for a comprehensive, ongoing inventory of federal lands, and for a land use planning process that "project[s]" "present and future use," § 1701(a)(2), [****7] given the lands' inventoried characteristics.