Opinion ID: 216362
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Use of three strikes standard

Text: Ursack contends that in deciding to revoke approval of the S29 based on three failures, SIBBG failed to consider an important aspect of the problem. See Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n, Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983) (agency decision is arbitrary and capricious when the agency entirely fail[s] to consider an important aspect of the problem). In Ursack's view, SIBBG failed to consider whether use of the Ursackwhich is lighter and easier to carry than hard-sided canistersmight increase public compliance with park and forest food-storage requirements. Ursack believes that it's better to have a handful of Ursack failures than to have a large number of incidents in which bears obtain food because a backpacker decided to store his or her food improperly. Thus, argues Ursack, SIBBG should have considered the extent to which use of the Ursack might increase visitor compliance before deciding that its approval would be revoked after only three failures. However, the administrative record shows that SIBBG did not entirely fail to consider this aspect of the problem. In debating whether to conditionally approve the Ursack for the 2007 season, several members of SIBBG cited increased compliance as a reason favoring approval. During the debate, one SIBBG member, Harold Werner, stated the following in an email to other members of the group: I suspect that this product improves compliance, and I cannot help but wonder if the low number of incidents last summer [i.e., in 2006] was related to better compliance. The only obvious difference in last year compared to previous years was the authorization to use Ursacks in canister-required areas. 1:SER:70-75 (quote appears on page 74). Similarly, when Craig Axtell, the Superintendent of SEKI, suggested that SIBBG reconsider its denial of Ursack's conditional approval for the 2007 season, he wrote: [W]e recognize that most wilderness users carry some form of portable bear-proof storage device; many of them dislike the weight of approved units. A lighter approved unit should improve compliance[,] which is important to achieving our bear management objectives. 2:SER:419-20. At least one other member of SIBBG, Peter Rowland, acknowledged this point and countered with an opposing viewpointspecifically, that the compliance rate was already at 91% and that attaining an extra few percent compliance might not be worth putting up with a product that currently appears to have a relatively high rate of failure compared to its competitors. 2:SER:443-44. The above exchange indicates that SIBBG did not entirely fail to consider the issue of increased compliance. To the contrary, SIBBG balanced the benefit of increased compliance against the risk of container failure during the process of deciding whether and on what terms the Ursack would be conditionally approved. In its reply brief, Ursack acknowledges that SIBBG did not entirely fail to consider this issue, but it argues that SIBBG approached the issue from the wrong angle. Ursack points out that the 91% compliance rate cited by Rowland refers to the percentage of visitors who carry canisters. Ursack's position is that even though 91% of backpackers carry canisters, they often carry more food than they can fit into a single canister, which results in them storing over-flow food outside the canister. Thus, argues Ursack, SIBBG shouldn't have asked whether approving the Ursack would have raised the compliance rate above 91%, it should have asked whether approving the Ursack would have resulted in better compliance even among the 91% of backpackers who already carry canisters. The problem with this argument is that nothing in the administrative record indicates that the Ursack was such an obvious solution to the overflow food issue that the agency's failure to consider the compliance issue from that angle was a failure to consider an important aspect of the problem. The record does not show that backpackers can fit more food into a single Ursack than into a single hard-sided canister. Thus, backpackers would still need to carry more than one Ursack (or a combination of Ursacks and canisters) in order to properly store all food. Further, the record does not suggest that backpackers would choose to carry multiple storage containers of any kind rather than store some overflow food improperly. Although Ursacks are lighter, they still take up pack space, and the record indicates that the aluminum lining would have to be removed from an Ursack before a backpacker would even consider carrying a second one. 2:ER:144, 148. Yet, as noted, SIBBG deemed the aluminum liner necessary to prevent food spoilage and tree damage. [3] So Ursack is not an obvious solution to the overflow food problem, and for this reason the agencies did not entirely fail to consider an important aspect of the problem by approaching the issue from the standpoint of whether Ursack's light weight would increase the number of backpackers who carried at least one food-storage container. Moreover, the record does not show that SIBBG ignored the overflow food problem entirely. Although Rowland's statement about compliance indicated that he was concerned about whether backpackers would carry food-storage containers at all, this does not mean that SIBBG did not also consider whether Ursacks might reduce the number of bear incidents caused by overflow food. Both Werner and Axtell considered whether Ursacks might increase compliance, and they did not say anything indicating that they were excluding overflow food from their definition of noncompliance. To the contrary, Werner was well aware that many bear incidents were caused by overflow food, 1:SER:62, as was SIBBG in general, 2:ER:144 (letter referring to SIBBG map informing backpackers that most negative bear encounters occur due to overflow food). Thus, although SIBBG members did not explicitly mention overflow food in the course of their debate over conditional approval of the Ursack, we cannot conclude that they ignored this aspect of the problem altogether.