Opinion ID: 151425
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Multiple Use and Sustained Yield

Text: As explained above, see supra at 504, FLPMA requires the Bureau to manage the public lands under principles of multiple use and sustained yield. 43 U.S.C. § 1732(a). Appellants assert that the Atlantic Rim Project violated these mandates. Even though the Record of Decision stated that the Bureau factored in objectives other than maximizing natural gas recovery, ROD at 10, Appellants insist that provisions in the Atlantic Rim Project that envision some natural gas development to the permanent detriment of other uses do[] not reflect FLPMA's intent to balance resource uses on the public lands. Appellants' Br. at 67. But while the Bureau was to conform with the principles of multiple use and sustained yield, the chosen development alternative did not have to protect all current and possible uses. As the Bureau's decisions become more granular, the uses maximized by each project necessarily become more limited. Yet those decisions may still be part of the Bureau's overall management under the principles of multiple use and sustained yield. That is, while the Great Divide RMP must reflect a wide range of uses, the Atlantic Rim Project Area deals with a smaller area of land and can optimize a narrower range of uses. Each plan of development for the drilling of specific wells will optimize still fewer uses in that plan's limited acreage. As the district court stated, each individual project and parcel of land need not, and cannot, reflect all FLPMA's purposes. TRCP, 605 F.Supp.2d at 282. See also S. Utah Wilderness Alliance Utah Chapter, Sierra Club, 122 IBLA 165, 172 (1992) (Multiple use is generally considered in the context of BLM's land-use planning [ i.e., RMPs ].). The Bureau has substantial discretion to decide how to achieve the multiple use and sustained yield objectives. In Norton v. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, 542 U.S. 55, 124 S.Ct. 2373, 159 L.Ed.2d 137 (2004), the Supreme Court considered the Bureau's obligation under FLPMA to maintain wilderness study areas  roadless lands of at least 5000 acres that possess certain wilderness characteristics  in a manner so as not to impair the suitability of such areas for preservation as wilderness. Id. at 59, 124 S.Ct. 2373 (quoting 43 U.S.C. § 1782(c)). The Court explained that the Bureau has a great deal of discretion in deciding how to achieve the goal of § 1782(c), even though the section is mandatory as to the object to be achieved. 542 U.S. at 66, 124 S.Ct. 2373. The same applies to the goals listed in § 1732(a). Though the Bureau must manage the Atlantic Rim Project Area under the principles of multiple use and sustained yield, 43 U.S.C. § 1732(a), the Bureau has wide discretion to determine how those principles should be applied. We are satisfied the Atlantic Rim Project reflects those principles. The 2000 well alternative the Bureau ultimately adopted is clearly a product of compromise among competing goals, and encompasses less drilling and more protection of other resources than the original proposal. See generally ROD at 11-12 (comparing the proposal with other alternatives, including the preferred alternative that the Bureau adopted). FLPMA the Bureau fulfilled its mandate under FLPMA.