Opinion ID: 2821421
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Litigation and Statutory Compliance

Text: The USDA promulgated the exemption to the Roadless Rule in part to comply with statutes governing the Tongass and in response to lawsuits challenging the Roadless Rule. The Supreme Court has suggested that it is appropriate for an agency to engage in new rulemaking when litigation reveals new information. See Smiley v. Citibank (S. Dakota), N.A., 517 U.S. 735, 741 (1996) (“Nor does it matter that the regulation was prompted by litigation, including this very suit.”). This is precisely what occurred here: A number of lawsuits filed against the USDA brought to light issues concerning potential conflicts between the Roadless Rule, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), Pub. L. No. 96-487, 94 Stat. 2371 (1980), and the Tongass Timber Reforms Act (TTRA), Pub L. No. 101-626, 104 Stat. 4426 (1990). The majority focuses on the fact that the 2003 ROD engendered new litigation, and concludes that it was therefore arbitrary and capricious for the USDA to act in response to the earlier litigation. However, the fact that the 2003 ROD led to additional litigation says very little about whether the earlier litigation pointed to legitimate issues regarding the Roadless Rule’s compliance with various statutes ordering preservation of an adequate supply of timber to Southeast Alaskan communities whose inhabitants depend on it for their livelihood. The agency acted well within the 58 ORGANIZED VILLAGE OF KAKE V. USDA bounds of its authority if it believed that revising the Roadless Rule would ensure compliance with the statutory mandates that had generated the original litigation. We have previously concluded that ANILCA and TTRA require that the USDA balance multiple goals in the Tongass: “recreation, environmental protection, and timber harvest.” Natural Res. Def. Council v. U.S. Forest Serv., 421 F.3d 797, 808 & n.22 (9th Cir. 2005). The USDA’s 2003 ROD clearly finds that the Tongass Exemption was meant to bring the Roadless Rule in line with the purposes of ANILCA and TTRA. The USDA noted that, under ANILCA, Congress placed 5.5 million acres of Tongass in permanent wilderness status and the designation of disposition of lands in the act “represent[s] a proper balance between the reservation of national conservation system units and those public lands necessary and appropriate for more intensive use and disposition.” 68 Fed. Reg. at 75,142. The USDA also stated that TTRA requires it to ensure that enough timber is available to “meet[] the annual market demand for timber” and “meet[] the market demand from the forest for each planning cycle . . . .” 68 Fed. Reg. at 75,140. After promulgating the revised Roadless Rule, the USDA issued a press release stating that the Tongass Exemption sought to maintain “the balance for roadless area protection struck in the Tongass Land Management Plan.” The 2003 ROD also concluded that “[t]his final rule reflects the Department’s assessment of how to best implement the letter and spirit of congressional direction along with public values, in light of the abundance of roadless values on the Tongass, the protection of roadless values already included in the Tongass forest plan, and the socioeconomic costs to local ORGANIZED VILLAGE OF KAKE V. USDA 59 communities of applying the roadless rule’s prohibitions.” 68 Fed. Reg. at 75,142. I do not suggest that ANILCA and TTRA explicitly forbid the USDA from applying the Roadless Rule to the Tongass. TTRA, for example, is “[s]ubject to appropriations, other applicable law, and the requirements of the National Forest Management Act . . . .” 16 U.S.C. § 539d(a). The USDA therefore had discretion to adopt the Roadless Rule to protect wildlife, recreation, sustained use, and other values. See Natural Res. Def. Council, 421 F.3d at 801. By the same token, nothing prevented the USDA from striking a different balance and choosing to exempt the Tongass. Considering the purposes of ANILCA and TTRA, it is clear that Congress sought to promote a balance between environmental preservation, road access, and timber availability. The USDA recognized this directive in promulgating the revised rule. The Supreme Court has “long recognized that considerable weight should be accorded to an executive department’s construction of a statutory scheme it is entrusted to administer, and the principle of deference to administrative interpretations. . . .” Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 844 (1984). We should abide by this principle, and defer to the actions of the USDA in promulgating an exemption to the Roadless Rule.